Star Fox: Frosty Kurse
by ReapingRose115
Summary: Kursed returns to the Lylat system for pay to a hire, but gets caught up in a mission to investigate the disappearance of Fox McCloud, her former lover, with a man named Gabriel Frost Magilligan, a talented mercenary who is also mysterious, but somehow has managed to persuade her to do what she thought she couldn't do... Can Kursed stand up the the past she had run away from?
1. Chapter 1: Terms of Agreement

_**Authors note: This is my first Star Fox fanfiction and I hope that you all enjoy what you get. Please give feedback and tell me what to work on and what you like about the story!**_

Chapter 1: Terms of agreement

Kursed... A name that has struck deep into the core of many hearts, especially the many bounty hunters that have heard her name. Well... It wasn't her 'original' name.

Kursed use to be someone else, had a life that felt promising and fulfilling. She once had a lover, then another, but neither of them could protect her feelings from hurt. She ran away to lead a new life away from the Lylat System. Her former name had all become a lost memory and now the blue furred Vixen had a tight grasp on her hopefully 'better' life...

Kursed today had no hires available today, and so that left her with some sort of peace. A few days ago she was in the planet Kew for a job, but it seems as though a previous hire required a return trip to Corneria, but she hadn't met the hire for pay as of yet. Whoever owed her twenty-thousand bits will pay if he/she doesn't hand it over... She was told to meet him/her in person. As of now she is within the Lylat system once again, despite her promises to avoid returning to it, but it happens to be that she can't keep a promise, even to herself. What was even worse was the fact that she was in the city of Corneria and she was risking two things: meeting someone she cannot handle and meeting people that would remind her of her forgotten, painful past.

There was another reason why she came to Corneria. She wasn't particularly sure herself however; but for now, she will enjoy the hospitality of the hotel. The price was expensive, but nonetheless her taste. She prefers a soft, warm bed to the cold Cloud Runner. As long as no one notices the ship at first glance, she'll be able to stay incognito. Luckily, most of the Cornerian fleet consisting of young soldiers had been spread out to police the Lylat system, but often the spread becomes too thin and their attempts are not as effective. Kursed could remember when she worked closely with the recruits, and now that they're older and more experienced, hopefully they can hold their own for the little extra while.

It was almost lunch time, and Kursed was feeling at least a little peckish. The blue Vixen had neglected the need to nourish herself, and often a bounty hunter like herself would require energy to keep themselves going. At least a little bit of food wouldn't hurt. There was a fine restaurant just outside the hotel and knowing she had enough money to pay for it, she decided that she'll be treating herself. She decided to put on a denim garment scheme, consisting of a denim knee length skirt, a light blue blouse, almost matching her fur color, and a denim jacket to go over. Though not particularly her best choice of outfits, she felt comfortable in them.

Before she made her way out, she had to make sure she had everything that she would need: Her PDA which stores all information such as identity, a concealable ballistic handgun for personal defense, and obviously, her purse. Kursed learned through her younger years that it was easier to have a purse with all the 'womanly' things near you. She then looked at the handgun and thought about how primitive it looked compared to the blasters, laser and plasma based weaponry of military branches and thugs, but it happened to be a growing trend among the veteran bounty hunters, military branches and thugs alike to wield one. A weapon like this didn't look technologically advanced, but it sure possessed a sort of character to it.

One last check, and it was herself. Nothing out of the ordinary, still a beautiful face as most would consider, but she had noticed how her hair had grown longer, just to shoulder length but still longer than her old hairstyle, back when she wasn't Kursed... When she was...

Snapping her mind out of the distractions, she continued fourth, leaving the room and closing it behind her, hearing the automated lock click.

"Oi, lassy." A black furred hedgecat called the waitress who had served her, and with bill in hand, wagged it around before her. "My compliments to the chef, and to your fast and effective service."

"Why thank you sir." The waitress, a tall, sleek and pretty leopard replied with a generous smile. "Is there anything else we can offer for today?"

The hedgecat grinned and nodded. "I'll have a good cappuccino and get me a slice of your best cheesecake."

"As you wish sir." The waitress smiled before making her way to the kitchen.

The black furred hedgecat checked on his PDA: No job requests, at least not any new ones. "Lovely, I can chill." In reality, this was his break for another mission that he has to deal with, and it had been ongoing for at least a couple of months. He was a patient one however and took small jobs on the side for the extra bit of currency.

Kursed entered the restaurant, noticing that it is not full of customers, but had the one or two. It was still pretty early in the day, so it was best to assume not many customers would be here. Her eye caught on to the hedgecat, who wore a black trench coat that matched his fur color, and a rose on his breast pocket that instantly reminded her of one person she knew of. Whether this person knew that person or not, she kept it to herself and took a seat as far as possible.

The doors of the staff kitchen opened and two waitresses entered the scenario, both in formal uniform and wielding electronic notepads. One of them approached the mix-breed, whilst the other tended to the blue Vixen herself. "Hi, welcome to Casanova's, may I take your order?"

Kursed had a look at the menu. Earlier she had felt only a little peckish, but now that she had arrived, her appetite had increased just at the sight of the food's names. Many delightful dish names just made her mouth water. "Uhm..." Looking at the starters, she took notice of the 'deconstructed prawn toast' starter portion. She had enjoyed prawn toast before. "Erm... For starters I'll have the deconstructed prawn toast portion..."

"Mhm, anything else?"

"For the main course..." She turned to the main courses and skimmed through until she spotted something that sounded scrumptious by thought alone. "... A... Steak with grilled vegetables, and cumin yogurt and roast potatoes on the side."

"Any desserts and drinks?"

A tempting treat she couldn't refuse. "Yes, I'll have the..." She spotted something of interest in the dessert menu and smiled. "I'll have a large hazel flute, and can I have a warm bottle of sake?"

"Interesting combo ma'am. Yes, I'll get the chefs right on it." The waitress, a well figured wolf smiled, bowed and headed towards the staff kitchen and made her way in.

From this point on, Kursed couldn't help but think of the food at hand. However, after some intense thoughts about 'steak', it pointed back to her old life... She shook her head, snapping herself out of the mental trance. 'I knew I shouldn't have come back to this place...' It was hard enough returning to the Lylat System, even more difficult to suppress the past... But she realized the inevitability that it will come bouncing back to her.

Taking a deep breath in, she managed to compose herself. Lunch was in the make...

The hedgecat looked ahead to the blue Vixen sitting across the restaurant. He noticed how she kept running her hands through her hair, not in the fashion to fix it but because she was distraught in thought. He decided to ignore it and return his attention to his PDA which was on the network. He browsed through news about the Cornerian fleet, and noticed a headline: "Increase in illegal activity."

He had noticed a growing pattern of gangs and small time criminals increasing around certain planets of the Lylat System. "Bloody hell..." He commented, taking a sip of his hot drink there after. He knew that the Cornerian army had not enough troops in Lylat to police the planets, since he had worked personally along side them.

Having processed the thought, he then figured it could be a way to get paid, and he is well known among the high ranking of the Cornerian Military branches. Mercenaries and bounty hunters with close ties to major factions usually get the better pay. He pocketed the small PDA and relaxed himself in his seat.

He then returned his gaze to the blue Vixen who had food on her table. "I guess I ain't the only one who likes the food around 'ere..." He thought to himself.

"Excuse me... Um... Sir?"

The hedgecat turned to the waitress who was awaiting pay for the orders. "No need to be polite lass, the name's Gabriel."

"Ah, Gabriel..."

Gabriel handed a wad of cash to the waitress, not caring how much was in it, and neither wanting any back. "Keep the rest as a tip." He stood up just as the waitress left him, but then he halted her. "Wait."

"Is there a problem?"

"No, it's fine. Just wanted to say I'll be payin' fer the burd over there. Oh and I'll have my cheesecake to go." He pointed to the blue Vixen. His keen eye noticed one of her ears perk. He handed another wad of cash and let the waitress to her duties. When he noticed her standing there with a gaping mouth of surprise, he sighed. "Are you really going to be daft and stand out here with two wads of cash?"

"I'm sorry. I'll be on my way." She left the main dining area.

Gabriel then, without permission of the blue fox, decided to take a seat opposite of her. "Don't mind me, I'm just here for the company."

Kursed was unsure of that, and had her hand reach for the gun in her purse, aiming it under the table at the unknown man. "You are?"

"Gabriel Magilligan. Call me Frost."

"Frost? 'The' Frost?"

The story went that Frost was part of the Cornerian army and rose in ranks so fast, that he became special forces. One day he decided to leave the army to become a mercenary. Even mercenaries and bounty hunters alike had feared Frost, until one day he disappeared for no particular reason. "Quite a story, barely any character development..." Kursed thought sarcastically.

"Maybe there's something about me you rather not know..."

Kursed shook her head when she heard Frost's thoughts in her own mind. Though she is capable of reading other people's minds, she hadn't in a long time done so... Or had she read his mind? She then looked at the hedgecat whose gaze was as if concentrated on her. "Did you...?"

Gabriel only chuckled, tapping twice on the side of his head. "I've heard a lot about the infamous Kursed, never thought I'd meet her right now. And as expected, yer aimin' a bloody piece at me. Can't I meet a braw burd in the universe who ain't a shietey bitch?"

She noticed his Scottish dialect, and how it differs to her Estuary English dialect. He looked professional, but sure as hell didn't sound like one. "What is it you want?"

He sat back and grinned. "Well... I just wanted to meet ya. Nothin' says 'hello' like a good welcome chat. But right now, a gun's barrel is pointin' rite at me."

Kursed attempted to read his mind, but she was met with a mental wall. She was up against a very formidable character. She sighed and showed the gun before dropping it back into her purse. "Fine, it's away..."

"A little hostile aren't yee? I can't have a nice sit down with anyone unless we got a pint hand in hand and making our selves look like dobbers."

The Vixen could barely make any sense of what he was trying to say, but after taking a little bit of time to process what he had said, she nodded in agreement. But she didn't want to be distracted by anything and wanted to really know what Frost wanted. "You're here for something, and I'm not comfortable being around people I don't know for long casual talk. Just get to the point and tell me what you want." She was stern and confident that her tone would be intimidating, but then she found herself gaping in shock that he gestured his hand, waving it about. Was he really going to dismiss a possible threat!?

Magilligan sat forward, folding his arms and placing it on the table. "You're living a lie."

The Vixen gasped: could he know the truth about her past? The truth about Kursed? "L-L-Lie?" She stammered.

"We both have a story to tell. But sitting here, I took the time to learn more about you. It's probably intrusive and I don't like to put myself into other people's nose, but right now I can't help myself." He took a piece of steak that Kursed hadn't eaten from her plate, threw it into his mouth and began chewing. Somehow, his face was in a grin, making him look almost over confident.

She was losing her composure, and in panicking tone, she said: "I think you h-h-have the w-w-wrong p-p-"

"I don't." He heard his PDA ring, and decided it was best to attend to it. He answered the call. It was Peppy Hare, the current General of the Cornerian army.

"Peppy...?"

"Magilligan. Talk to me."

"Gabriel, am I calling at a bad time?" Peppy asked.

Gabriel looked over to Kursed, how her beauty seemed innocent, it almost entranced him. He stopped looking at her and then chuckled before looking back at Peppy. "Nah, nothin' wrong 'ere."

Peppy nodded. "Look, Gabriel. We're at another crisis and I can only rely on the best of the best. I fear that you alone however will not be able to do this."

"Quit jabberin' about and get straight to the point."

"Well... One of our most trusted affiliates, Fox McCloud, is missing."

The hearing of the name struck Kursed with a powerful mental blow that rocked her core. That name alone had brought back all her memories of her past that she had tried to forget about, all those memories...

"What do you mean you're leaving!?" The red Vixen asked in disbelief.

"I can't handle this anymore Fox, I'm sorry but I have to leave you."

"You can't leave Krystal!" Krystal... A name that had been for a long time forsaken... "Krystal... I need you..."

As much as his tear filled eyes were compelling her to stay, she promised herself that she would leave. Not for Star Fox, not for Star Wolf, but just for herself. As her eyes watered to similar look to Fox's... She ran off without any thought.

Fox attempted pursuit and kept her trail 'til he fell over. As he finally managed to regain his balance, she was already gone. He couldn't understand her pain until now, but had he understood earlier... She wouldn't have left... "Kursed..." He whispered to himself before crying out loudly for it to echo in the streets of Corneria: "Krystal!"

Snapping from her trance, she shook her head and attempted to suppress the memory with all her mental strength. She then looked at Frost, the hedgecat had relaxed in his seat for too long. He had probably gone through her mind to see her memory. It brought back pain and regret, and a strong sense of rage. Not wanting to hear anymore memories, she promised herself to leave Corneria once again. Being polite however, she thanked Frost for paying for her food with a nod, before taking her purse and abruptly leaving. She had to get her things from the hotel room.

The mix-bred fur just relaxed in his seat whilst still on his PDA communicator to Peppy. "Hey Peppy, you said somethin' about me needin' someone else to help."

"I know you're stronger than you look, but we can't risk you going in alone and directly, at least not yet."

"Well I think I have one person I can add for the job, but you'll hav'ta settle a higher pay agreement so that I can split profits."

Peppy grinned, holding the tip of his right moustache. "Name a price."

Gabriel always loved it when Peppy allowed him to name his own price. At this point, he had to name a high price since he'd be splitting wages to the other possible team mates. "I'll need at least nine hundred grand."

"Hmm..." Peppy leaned his head on his hand.

Frost raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"I would've expected a higher price. Your usual asking price would about four hundred grand. Are you really going to share it off or be greedy like our last visit to the Cornerian casino?"

Gabriel chuckled, remembering the time he visited Peppy and went to the local casino, and Gabriel used most of his money before resorting to borrowing Peppy's to win it back. "Yeah I remember." He nodded. "No, I promise not to be a bloody bastirt and I won't let the buggers leave skint."

The old hare shook his head, almost looking like he couldn't believe Frost would keep his promise, but then smiled. "Alright. I trust you on this. I'll approve your fee. Don't disappoint Frost."

"Right, right..."

Peppy was then interrupted by a soldier. The old hare General turned to hear out what the younger soldier had to say. The hedgecat couldn't hear what the two were talking about, he could see the hint of grimace on the General's face. After he saw the soldier leave, he could tell that Peppy had something to say.

"Well Gabriel, I think your first step to your investigation might have just been pointed out for you, and I have a side job for you. Apparently, a former bounty hunter named Rise had been seen leaving the planet Venom and is headed for Sauria. Apparently he was affiliated with Andross forces, maybe he has some information about McCloud."

"And the other bit of news?"

"Also, another bounty hunter going by the name 'Kursed' had been reported to have landed in Corneria. If you can, apprehend the foe. We cannot have a loose bounty hunter in Corneria, especially one that may be affiliated with Andross' forces."

Coincidentally that wouldn't be necessary... "Nah, I have a better idea. I'm sure a good negotiation of price would turn her to our side."

"Her...?" Peppy asked suspiciously.

Gabriel nodded. "I'm going to have a close encounter with her..."

The vixen was rushing herself, making sure she had everything was stuffed in her luggage. She obviously had all her clothes in it. She couldn't care less for the money that her hire offered; she had to leave before her past begins to haunt her again. **_"Better safe than sorry, better safe than sorry…" _**She continuously recited, trying to keep the memories away from her mind.

She had to leave Corneria, Lylat, all of it behind!

Just as she was about to approach the door with luggage in hand, she heard a knock. "W-who is it?" She asked with a stammering voice.

"Room service…"

There was a really weird hint of a familiar accent with that voice. Not trusting it, she left her luggage on the floor, and drew the pistol from her purse. "Room service? I never asked for any room service."

There was no sudden reply but then the voice replied slowly and sharply: "It's complimentary."

Noticing the pause between her question and the speaker's reply, she knew that this couldn't be room service. She looked at the door handle, and didn't hesitate to wrap her hand around it. She counted to three and pulled the door open to take aim at her possible adversary but then found that she couldn't aim her gun at him when the foe pulled a gun on her, putting it on her neck.

"You know, you really should be more careful of who you open the door to."

It was the hedgecat… She felt the cold end of the barrel of his revolver, a considerably antique firearm but nonetheless, never under estimated even to now. She didn't want it to end like this, and she wasn't going to die here and now. The blue furred vixen quickly managed to throw off his aim, and threw a powerful punch at his face.

The hedgecat quickly recoiled and barely managed to dodge the thrown fist. Knowing that Kursed meant business at this point, he wasn't going to play around. When he noticed that the vixen was going to raise her pistol on him, he thought fast and pulled into a flamingo stance before thrusting his lifted foot forwards and knocking Kursed back with a powerful kick.

The blue furred vixen recovered from the attack and took aim, firing twice at the hedgecat. She missed when he managed to take cover just outside the door. "Damn it!" She cursed, taking cover behind the double bed of her room. It didn't offer strong protection but she had little choice.

Gabriel peaked out into the room. Just as he did, two more shots came at his way. He smiled and backed off, safe in his cover he wasn't shaken by the incoming gunfire. The tough wall he leaned against was capable of stopping weak pistol fire, whilst his revolver would pierce through it in comparison. He kept calm and carried on with his task. Reaching for his inner pocket, he took hold of a small box, and pulled it out. It was a small box of cigarettes. He then noticed a sign that said 'NO SMOKING'. "Bah… I have a fag whether ya twats like it or not." He opened it and used his lips to take hold of one. Reaching into his inner pocket again he produced a lighter from it. Igniting a small flame, he lit up the cigarette and inhaled an unhealthy breath.

Though he enjoyed the taste of tobacco, he couldn't sidetrack. He had to apprehend the vixen first. He knocked on the door twice, and then pulled his hand away as two blasts of gunfire sounded from the other side of the room. "Nice reaction time." The mix-breed commented. Quickly he reached for the door handle and pulled it closed, at the same time, the crash of gunfire sounded and a bullet grazed his arm. It was only a minor flesh wound, and shrugged it off… Like he does for most small wounds.

The blue vixen kept her aim at the now closed door. She wondered why the hedgecat would suddenly reach for the door and close it, as if it provided any more cover than the wall he is hiding behind. Slowly she stood up however and cautiously walked closer to the door, keeping her aim straight ahead.

Magilligan took off his trench coat and put it aside, and folded the sleeves of his shirt to elbow length. "One… Two… Three…" Gabriel counted, and then turned to the door and with a powerful, inhuman kick, blasted the door off its hinges and straight at the vixen. He charged in…

The vixen was caught off guard and was knocked down, and in the process, dropped her firearm. It slid under the bed and she couldn't reach it in time before the hedgecat had locked on to her. She had nothing near her to save her life, not even a carpet to pull on the enemy, she was cornered. Her professional training as a bounty hunter was all she could rely on and so she quickly pulled herself up and kicked away Magilligan's aim once again.

Gabriel, though lost grip of his gun and dropped it, neither was worried or intimidated, and engaged the vixen in combat. He blocked off a few thrown punches and swung kicks, and returned a few back at her. Though she blocked some of his attacks, she could last for long.

She tried her best to keep up with the enemy but this one was different: He wasn't all brawns and brawl, but rather his attacks were tactical, dynamic and fast. He had a variety of kicks, and never threw an undisciplined punch. She swung a roundhouse kick at him, but this was a quickly regretted as her leg had been caught.

She was vulnerable, and Frost always took opportunities. He threw off the leg and stunned Kursed with a strike of the palm, before finishing up with a straight kick roundhouse, sending the vixen flying across the room and to a wall. "Not bad." He complimented.

Pushed to her limits, she couldn't continue the fight and forced to submit to Magilligan, kneeling on the floor. As she did, she noticed the gun on her right. Feeling a burst of adrenaline take over her, she instinctively took the large revolver and took aim. "Freeze…" She warned. When she noticed that the mix-breed didn't listen, she warned once again: "I said freeze!"

He disregarded her warning and threw his still lit cigarette at the vixen.

The sudden heat making contact with her muzzle stunned her. Her eyelids shielded her eyes and she pulled her gun back. Her aim was thrown off and she was once again vulnerable, much to her disdain. "Fuck!" She swore in panic.

Not wasting any time, Frost charged and threw his boot at her, not literally but he had his boot on to kick her once again. He quickly put his boot on her neck and forced her to stand and pinned her to the wall. "You're quite flexible, but I am too." He flattered himself sarcastically. "Now I had the feeling you'd blast a few at me and I ain't so much as happy to say the least."

"Kill me and get it over with!" Kursed cried out. "Your kind disgusts me!" She insulted to provoke an attack.

"I'm not here to kill you." Gabriel pulled himself away from the vixen, picking up his dropped gun and holstering the large calibre handgun.

The vixen was unsure of what the hedgecat was planning, but she questioned him anyways, hoping for an answer. "What are you here for?"

The mix-breed produced the old cigarette box and lighter from earlier and lit up a new cigarette that his lips caught. He inhaled a breath and put away the box and lighter before holding the cigarette with his right hand, which was also wounded. He still disregarded the wound as if it wasn't bad and turned to the vixen with a stern look. "You heard what Peppy asked for earlier. And right now I don't care whether you want to leave or not. Because are you really going to leave without the promised cash from your old bounty?"

The vixen gasped. "Y-You're the hire!?"

Magilligan nodded. "Right now I'm willing to negotiate a higher price than what was previously offered. "Twenty-thousand bits would be enough to last you a bit had you not damaged your ship as you previously explained in the message."

"Your point?" Kursed growled.

The hedgecat took a seat on the bed, taking another puff of breath with the cigarette in mouth and taking hold of it again before exhaling. "With Peppy offering nine-hundred grand to me, and knowing that I'm going to need a crew to help me with my upcoming investigations, I'm offering you ten percent."

"Ninety thousand…?" She calculated. As much as she didn't like the idea of helping to rescue the same person that broke her heart all those years ago, she still needed a steady source of income. There hadn't been anyone who offered a good price besides this shady mix-breed who happened to be a bounty hunter himself, and a rich one at that. Her personal ship, the Cloud Runner was also deteriorating. Though she could pay for a hotel room, paying for ship repairs wasn't cheap since the Anglar Blitz.

"Or if you're not satisfied, we can negotiate a better price." Magilligan offered.

The vixen put some more thought in to it. "Make it twenty percent."

"Fifteen."

Though it wasn't exactly 'twenty percent', she would be able to pay off for her ship and take longer refuge without the need of a hire for a little while and live at peace… "Fine." She picked up luggage and looked at the black furred mix-breed.

The hedgecat stood and smiled. He dropped another wad of cash and wrote a note on it: 'This should cover repairs.' He turned to the blue vixen and gestured her to follow him out. As she did, he picked up his coat and put it on. The heavy coat had covered his gun though the bullet grazed arm disappointed him. "This was my favourite coat…" He sighed but continued walking with the blue vixen by his side.

They made their way to an elevator, and the two entered. No one was around and they had a long way to go down. "Now that we settled an agreement, I want to tell you my terms."

"Terms?" She didn't like the sound of it.

"As of now you're under my wing, and you do as I say and follow the rules."

"You have rules?" Kursed chuckled, as if he were joking. The serious look on his muzzle however prompt her to stop laughing. "You aren't kidding, are you?"

The hedgecat shook his head. "I follow ten 'Golden' rules. You better hear them out and listen carefully."

"They're probably the same as any other damn bounty hunter…"

He shook his head once again. "Trust me lass, throughout my years, I've seen people break the bounty hunter rules, and when they do they really do fock up. My rules can be bent or broken for certain situations… But I recommend you follow them to last against any blighter we might 'av ta shoot."

She understood and believed every word he had said, since she noticed that the bounty hunter rules aren't concrete and don't always save one's life. Not only that, he still kept a serious face, and that said a lot about him.

"Rule number one: Keep calm, and have a legal drug on the side."

Kursed almost found that rule ridiculous. If one were to alter their bodies, they won't be able to do a mission at all. "You think legal substances are key to keeping calm?"

"As long as they're not abused, you might be able to have steadier hands with a sniper." He explained. "Rule number 2: Messy kills are valid kills."

The vixen understood the concept of that rule. "Go on." She urged.

"Rule number 3: Do not fight what you're not equipped for. I think that's self explanatory." He puffed once again with his cigarette before continuing with the list of rules. "Rule number 4, don't hesitate. Just act."

That one rule gave Kursed the shivers, as it reminded her of Star Wolf, one of her previous affiliations.

"Rule number 5: When sniping, you shoot as far as possible. Recommended distance of 800m. The bastirts won't hear the bloody shots from that far."

The vixen had never really sniped as far as 800m, and questioned Frost's logic, as she had sniped as far as 200m and she was heard. "I don't believe that no one would not hear a sniper shot even if you shoot further than 800m."

Gabriel only grinned and responded: "Have you seen anyone react to a loud sound 800m away? Not counting thunder." When he saw her shake her head, he continued: "At 800m, it'll be difficult to hear the shot, let alone tell where it had come from in a short amount of time." He leaned on the metallic wall.

"You have your rules well thought out." Kursed complimented with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Rule number 6: after every couple of kills, find better cover. You don't want to find out what happens if you attract the attention of a large calibre wielding bastard who fires a volley of powerful machinegun rounds whilst you're behind a concrete wall." Gabriel knows how different firearms render different sets of cover useless and they become concealment He also takes note of which type of wall or 'cover' would be sufficient for different sets of ammunition, though not all bullets, plasma based projectiles and lasers can be stopped by a single set of cover alone.

"What about rule 7?"

"Don't ask for what you don't need to know about." Kursed found that rule difficult to take into consideration. "It gives the answer-er a better chance to compromise ya."

"Right, rule number 8?"

He leaned forwards and then continued. "Rule number 8: improvising is a good tactic as long as you have the advantage or that you and your enemies are at a stalemate. That way, you do something stupid, you'll have less chance of dying. You try to do something stupid when you're losing, unless it's retreating, you're a dead cunt." He leaned back on the wall and noticed that they're close to the 10th floor, and luckily no one had called for this lift. "Rule number 9: do the job and get out. Unless you got more to deal with, you keep going."

Kursed had broken that rule many times before when she used to be with the disbanded Star Fox crew, and sometimes whilst working with Star Wolf. Hopefully she could follow this rule, because the many times she had broken it, she put herself in danger. Curiosity kills. She then waited for the final rule, but he didn't say anything. There was a short silence between him and her. Becoming impatient, she asked: "What's Golden Rule number 10?"

Gabriel stayed quiet for a moment before he smirked impishly. "Profit…"

Though profit would usually refer to money, there was a sense of ambiguity to his tone, and she couldn't read his mind either. What did profit mean?

"Let's just get moving. I'll explain more about the situation later. I'll take you to my ship and we'll head off for the rest of the crew."

"What do you mea-"

"You think two versus a whole bloody army would save the Lylat system? We're obviously going to need allies and a good number of them as well." Peppy had already had his designated 'allies' marked for the course of his mission.

Kursed wanted to question him, but at this point, she suspected he didn't want any more questions to be asked. She didn't want to irritate him, and decided it's best to keep quiet, despite her heart urging her to shout out detest to his earlier offer. She was already regretting the agreement. "Damn it…" She muttered.

Lucy tended to her father, seeing that he was distraught in thought once again. The small glass of whiskey with ice on the table and the different pictures of 'The old gang' gave her the idea. She approached him and sat beside him. "Dad…"

"It's nothing Lucy, just a bit of nostalgia." He commented.

Lucy shook her head. "You're also worried about Fox. You miss the old day's dad, with Star Fox." She took the time to think and looked at the picture of Fox and Krystal, together in affection. Though she never hated the vixen, she hated her choice to leave. It was her leaving that deteriorated the vulpine to insanity… "If only we could find her…"

"We don't have to…" Peppy commented…

It had been a few hours since they've left orbit of Corneria, and they were now in space. Frost had taken Kursed to his home, which though was large on the outside, had very narrow hallways inside and barely had any large open rooms besides the main communications area and his personal armoury.

She explored the room, taking note of how organised it was. Weapon types were sorted together, from smaller to larger weapons coming from top to bottom. What was really interesting was the fact that few of these weapons were blasters or plasma based, and instead were an assortment of ballistic firearms instead.

There were pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, marksmen rifles, sniper rifles and heavier based weaponry such as rocket launchers and grenade launchers. In one corner of the room, a stack of crates were left there. Taking a closer look, she noticed how they were filled with bullet cartridges, each crate containing different named cartridges of different sizes. Each crate was marked by their respective weapon type.

She took hold of a weapon out of its place, a small carbine assault rifle. It was locked into safety and so she could hold it and not worry of an accidental discharge. The blue furred vixen liked the feel of it, how it wasn't too heavy and was easy handle in a narrow area for its relatively small size for a rifle.

Not wanting to stick around and outstay her welcome to the weapons deposit, she slowly left the gun on the table and left. She looked left and right, and wondered where her room would be. When she saw Frost at the end of the hallway, she approached him. He took her to a cosy room which was near the end of the ship, and liked how it had decent furniture, was painted and had a comfy looking bed that was all to herself.

"This is your room. I'll take care of bed and breakfast, but lunch and dinner depends. Make yourself at home. You have access to everything besides the controls. Food, drink, and any toiletries for females are in the toilets. I always prepare for female guests."

"Thanks for the free hospitality."

"No problem."

Kursed noticed how the hedgecat didn't wear his trench coat and then saw that Frost had still not dressed his earlier gunshot graze, but it had healed. It was fairly inhuman for anyone's gunshot wounds, or even a small scratch, heal in such short time. She was about to question him but then kept her mouth shut about it. Instead, she found the gleaming revolver that Frost holstered. "That's a big gun."

Gabriel chuckled and drew it. "You like my Taurus Raging Bull?" He rhetorically asked. "This is a .500 Smith and Wesson chambered Taurus Raging Bull revolver. This is one hell of a beast as this was designed for hunting big game. Five huge rounds, and unbeatable accuracy and reliability for its class." He holstered the pistol. "A blaster is quite strong in itself but they never are capable of good accuracy. I've seen ground fights with blasters and often a lot of shots are missed rather than hit."

"It is quite difficult to find a blaster that is accurate…" Krystal agreed. "But they're really reliable weapons at the most."

"For some part, but I'll keep to my bullets." He folded his arms before looking at his wrist watch. "Better get some sleep. We start tomorrow and early…" He left Kursed to do as she pleased.

The blue vixen felt welcomed, but not prepared for whatever she was getting herself in to…


	2. Chapter 2: Filling gaps

Kursed awoke. She couldn't tell whether it was day time or not since she was aboard a ship that doesn't orbit a primary star. She stood up from her bed and looked at the time: 07:00. The digital clock was set to a 24 hour clock, so it was most likely morning. After groaning and yawning she stretched her arms out before standing from her bed and looking around. She saw nothing of particular interest and proceeded to make her way to the kitchen.

As she made it to the hallway, she realised she didn't actually know where the kitchen was since she didn't take the proper time to examine every room in the ship. Knowing that attempting to trace Frost's steps or read his mind was futile, she decided to look around herself. Walking down the hall, she noticed that there were other rooms with beds, and similar decoration to the room she was given. "Hmm…" There was a difference however, as she noticed a small box in the corner of each room. At first she kept walking down the hall, just eyeing how each and every room had a box in the corner, before temptation got the better of her. Looking left and right, she entered the last room of the hall and decided to have a look at the contents of the box.

She found pictures of Frost, and other people standing next to him in friendly affection, though most of the pictures in this box were of a young, handsome male fox. "Huh…" One of the picture frames however had a label that said: "Joseph Brewster."

Returning the contents of it, she went back a room and examined the contents of the box in this room. Though it still had pictures of Frost and other people, it had particularly more pictures of a Tigress. Looking at a label of a picture frame, it said: 'Tracey Williams." She put the contents back.

She repeated what she did before, checking multiple boxes for their contents, all of similar pictures, but all with different souvenirs. After some thinking, she put it all together and realised that these are possible crew mates of Frost's… But then why would they have boxes of their own pictures here?

"…Cook the pancakes until the bottoms are browned and bubbles appear on the surface, 2 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes longer…" He plated the pancakes and inhaled the intoxicating scent. "Presto!" Today, he had cinnamon Polenta pancakes ready for breakfast. To go on the side is a bottle of golden syrup and coffee to share. Placing the plate of stacked pancakes on the centre of the breakfast table alongside a pot of coffee, he continued on to cook more food. He wanted to combine a typical breakfast with a gourmet dish, as he usually would…

Knowing that they had a tough job ahead of them, a very big breakfast would get him and Kursed going.

After cooking some eggs, sausages, bacon, diced potatoes, baked beans and setting them up on two separate plates, placing garnish on the eggs and potatoes, he left the second plate on one side of the table whilst he left his plate on his. He checked the time and noticed that it was 08:10.

The blue furred vixen entered not more than a moment after, wearing only pyjama pants and a lace bra. When she noticed that she was barely dressed for breakfast, she looked at Frost who sent a raised eyebrow look before she looked away. "Maybe I should…" She cut herself off as she felt far too embarrassed.

"No, no. Take a seat and eat breakfast. We have a long day ahead of us. Besides… I used to have people barely dress for breakfast at all." The hedgecat explained before obtaining a fork and knife.

Kursed couldn't resist as she took in the smells of the food. She accepted to offer, taking a seat with a plate full of food in front of her. She had forgotten to eat dinner last night as well, and this made it hard to resist. Taking the knife and fork, she started to dig in, not caring about how she looked eating as she noticed Frost just eating food without any care to his look.

Breakfast really did remind her of the past with Star Fox… Fox used to cook really large breakfasts just for her and she would usually struggle to finish it, and he'd help dig in… Somehow, just by a nights sleep, she started to become comfortable with her painful past, just remembering it at least. Maybe it's a sign that she has to face the people of her memories and sort out the mess she left.

Not wanting to go 'there' yet, she decided it was best the turn her mind away from the subject and distract it with another. "So… The boxes of stuff in the rooms…" She awaited Frost to react. When she saw he look up and take a napkin to wipe his mouth before showing a smirk, she asked: "Who did they belong to?"

The hedgecat folded his arms and took a sip of his coffee. There was a moment of silence before he began to explain. "Back in the day, I used to be a simple Cornerian soldier on the front. This ship right here use to belong to fleet force 'Delta AWAL 29'."

"Hmm… I've heard of that before." The vixen couldn't put her finger on it but somehow she remembers it.

"Delta AWAL 29 was considered an 'elite fleet'. We were also sorta a family…" Frost commented. "Your crew mates will be the closest family you'll ever get."

"I see…"

Gabriel shovelled some baked beans into his mouth, chewed up the food before swallowing it down. He continued on. "There weren't too many of us, but I'll tell ya, if they were still here, this table would be packed full'a bastirts wid a bloody stomach to feed." He chuckled to himself at the thought. "Yeah, those were the days…"

The vixen took the opportunity to close in: "So what happened to them?" She anticipated a pause, a long pause at least before he'd answer… But he didn't hesitate.

"13 AWL, April 5th. The commander of the fleet receives a transmission from Macbeth. So we fly in and do the usual check up. Walk in armed and prepared…" He took a sip of coffee and continued on his story. "The commander personally deploys himself with the rest of the fleet, and we come to the Cornerian established base. Standard procedures, nothin' important. But then we are given orders to investigate a small market place, as it was believed to be a ground for illegal dealings."

Kursed understood that small markets are good disguises for illegal trade of weapons. She had managed to obtain well crafted weapons herself from the black market. "Go on…" She urged, instinctively eating.

"So we come in and expect things to go smoothly. But when gunshots go off from the other faction without any warning, a crossfire brews." Another sip of coffee. "We get our heads in cover and thought it was a militia attack and that it was a 'simple' situation. When we notice one of the lads were missin', we start shootin' back and lookin' for the bugger. Then we see him doing a runner, using a man hole. The witnesses including me reported it and we were ordered to pursue."

Somehow, the memories started to play out like a good film, and she could imagine a younger fox teamed up with all those she saw in those pictures.

"Once we catch up to the cunt, we bring him back. When we got back, the bloody bastirt we just saved pulled his gun on us, just as we were surrounded. Guess whose forces done us in?" He let a pause, so that he can wait for a possible response from Kursed. When she shrugged, he grimaced. "Andross' loyal forces. My commander never surrendered, even in the stupidest of situations. We always trusted our commander and we knew that we were gonna be done in. So we rather go down figh'in. Shots came our way but we sent more back." He sighed to himself at the memory. "The bastard who backstabbed us retreated, and for some reason I survived whilst almost everyone else I knew was a dead slab of meat."

The vixen never thought anyone could mentally stand such a painful sight, losing everyone you knew in such short time. "I'm sorry to hear that…"

Gabriel shook his head. "It's fine…" He folded his arms and leaned them on the table, and picked up his cutlery. "The focker left us for dead just for money. He got his cash and we were screwed. Many lives were lost that day. A lot of them had a family waitin' for 'em at home. How would you feel if one day you hear that a loved one had died for nothin'? We were fockin' shot for cash!" Seeing the irony, he chuckled. "But let's face it; we both have that job sorted out eh?"

Though she didn't want to laugh, she understood the rhetorical question. "I guess so."

There was a moment of silence, whether it is of awkwardness or to commemorate the fallen. It was broken the moment the black furred hedgecat finished up his breakfast.

"Alright… That was good." He commented. When he noticed that Kursed had finished up herself, he took her dishes and piled it on his own, taking it to the sink.

"Thank you for the breakfast." Kursed politely said with a soft tone.

The mercenary in black chuckled. "You remind me of my ol' mate Terry with that voice. She was always the soft talker, never sounds confident but trust me, she is… Well. Was…" He proceeded to wash the dishes. "That's the story…"

Kursed felt unsatisfied with the seemingly anti-climatic ending. "It's not… There's got to be more to it."

He turned to the blue furred bounty hunter with a smirk. "Yeah. But that's for another time."

Though the blue vixen was partially disappointed, she couldn't urge him to continue, for at least today. His story was interesting but she didn't get the ending, and definitely not the end. Next time, she hoped to know more.

After Kursed put on some more appropriate garments, she met Gabriel in the armoury. She spotted him checking a large sniper weapon. "That looks heavy."

"This thing is hefty, but not too bad once you get used to it." He bolted the unloaded weapon, pulling the charging handle to check the internal parts. ".50 BMG Barrett M82A1 anti-material rifle. This think packs a mean punch from both ends of the gun, with the receiving end getting the death slap." He stood up and mounted the weapon on his shoulder, pulling the trigger. Because it wasn't loaded, it only produced a clicking sound.

Though the bounty hunter had used snipers before, she had only used battle rifle snipers which had inferior range and power to anti-material snipers. She was admittedly a decent shot but not always a dead on shot. She was interested however in the bulky weapon before her, that wasn't as modern as standard arms Lylat System weapons. "What's so good about 'ballistic' weapons?"

"Well lemme tell ya. You ever go into battle and you see both parties use a standard arm blaster, right? They're designed to fire a certain amount of concentrated heat that doesn't pass through cover. That's the response to battles in the past where bullets would pass through walls and other things and often cause an accidental death or wound." He took hold of the Assault Rifle that the vixen had played with last night. "But since they switched to blasters, I haven't seen people get killed by hiding in weak spots as much as I had. With bullets, I can shoot through concrete." He put aside the large sniper before taking a magazine and inserting into his rifle. "This is my AKS-74U. A carbine assault rifle. I relied on this for a long time, and it hasn't failed me."

She nodded. "It seems like a reliable weapon."

Gabriel nodded in agreement. Standing up and putting the equipment aside, he took off his trench coat and proceeded to another box. Pulling out a custom combat vest, he put it on and with each pocket he loaded it with a form of ammunition, corresponding to the weapons he'll be bringing on the trip. He handed Kursed another vest.

"So…" She put on the vest. "What will I be getting?" She asked.

The hedgecat took an assortment of weapons that were similar to his, though the sniper was considerably smaller in bulk. The first weapon would be the trusty sidearm. "This is yours. IMIDesert Eagle." The handgun was of similar bulk to Gabriel's revolver, though not as much. It was also magazine fed as opposed to the revolver chambering that the hedgecat had. Her second weapon was her primary arm, just another AKS-74U, but with synthetic parts as opposed to wood parts. Her final weapon was a bolt action sniper rifle. "Why do I have the smaller sniper?"

"Don't underestimate what you get. That's an Artic Warfare, not as big but still can power through. It's pretty accurate as well, so don't bullshite about this." He took the gun and demonstrated how to load it: Inserting a magazine, pulling the bolt back and then pushing it back in to place. "Every shot, bolt it."

"Right…"

Several hours later, on planet Sauria, a mostly indigenous planet, and small settlements had since been established. Mostly peaceful villages are set here, but owing to how easy it is to settle here and avoid any sort of Government intervention. The perfect living area for small time thugs or a getaway home for the escape artists.

Tricky lived here… The blue furred vixen wondered how he was. It had been a few years since her last visit, so she didn't know what to expect.

"Several thugs gathering outside a small café… All small arms. Nothing interesting." Frost examined from afar for his target. 'Rise' was his first lead, and they had to detain him. Rise was inside the café, which was surrounded by other smaller buildings, perfect spot as vantage guarding. "Remember, we want the bastirt alive, nor attract attention. There'll be some marksmen, so we can't go in there just yet to get him out."

"But we're not that far enough for our shots to be quiet enough." Kursed stated. Their vantage point was a distant cliff, near a cave.

"The town is just about 600 metres off…" He took out two bottles of water.

Believing the other bottle was for her, she attempt to reach for it. Just before she could take it, it was snatched away from her. "Hey!"

The black furred hedgecat joked around and threw the bottle to the blue furred vixen. "Take a joke." He opened his bottle and proceeded to empty the contents by pouring it all over his head. The planet's heat was pretty high, so he had to rely on something to keep himself cool. Drenching himself with water would work for a little while.

The blue furred vixen didn't actually understand why they would really need their bottles of water, as they both had a large breakfast. Though it made sense it was hot, did they really need another drink?

Gabriel removed the muzzle break of his rifle, which would be considered idiotic, knowing the large calibre the weapon uses however; this allowed him to mount the empty bottle of water at the end. Using his knife, he cut out a hole of similar size to the bullet, and then fitting the muzzle break in, partially breaking open the end of the bottle. "A guerrilla style of sound suppression saves a lot of cash." Producing sticky tape from one of his pockets, the bottle was secured on. He took Kursed's rifle and did the same, although the muzzle break was integrated but not as annoyingly bulky.

Taking back her weapon, she kneeled down and took aim through the scope.

Frost kneeled down himself beside the vixen and used the bipod of his rifle to mount the weapon on a rock in front of him. He aimed through his scope and noticed two men on top of a rooftop near the café, both armed with battle rifles. "Alright, I see two cunts, south side of café. Their view from the other snipers are blocked by the machinery, so on my mark, we shoot together." He took a pause and perfectly aligned his sight on the target.

Kursed aligned her sight on the target but partially raised it above him since the chevron marker bellow the centre. Adjusting the stock of the gun to her shoulder, she awaited the count.

"3… 2… 1…"

Both fired at the same time at their respective targets. After a few seconds, both targets were struck and dropped to the floor. "Got them." The vixen said, smirking as she bolted the weapon to chamber the next shot. She noted that the make shift suppressors actually worked to reduce the sound of their weapons.

"Alright, two more on the north of the café. Same mark, I'll take the arse on the right." He adjusted his sight on his target.

Kursed did the same. "Alright…" She prompted.

"3… 2… 1…" They fired at the same time again. Frost's target was horribly decapitated by his shot. Only bits and pieces were left. "Head topped."

Kursed spotted the last set of marksmen. "Last set, west side of café."

"Same time, same plan." Repeating the step, their last set of targets was killed. To further add, Kursed had managed to blow apart her target's head. "Nice, I saw that head top." He stood up and stored the snipers in a bag, before leaving it inside the cave.

"So… We're gonna waltz in there and make our man talk?" The blue furred vixen asked. Seeing the hedgecat nod, she found it odd he was confident enough to walk in public with weapons.

They walked through town without any sort of problems, despite some of the thugs and crooks armed with weapons themselves. They probably armed themselves for the purpose of defending themselves only when shot at rather than attacking. The blue furred vixen entered the café first, and noticed a man talking to three other men at the back.

Gabriel followed in, and immediately he noticed the man he was looking for. "Rise…" He whispered to himself.

A lucky guess Kursed had made, and understood that they had to proceed. Upon closing in, she then started to notice the other three men… One wolf, one chameleon, and one… Panther… "Star Wolf…" She gasped out.

The four men noticed Kursed and Gabriel, and the fourth man realised that it was Frost, he attempted to flee.

The hedgecat quickly picked up a stool and accurately threw it at the fourth man, who was a tiger, and incapacitated him.

"Nice throw." The vixen complimented.

"Thanks…" He responded.

The other three men attempted to draw arms but Frost and Kursed had their weapons already aimed at them. The other three had to withdraw their attempts to take aim, and were useless in combat due to the spacing between them.

Having a good look at each other, the Panther, who was coincidentally named Panther Caroso, finally recognized from the blue vixen's face, who she was… "My, my… Krystal?" He smiled and attempted to walk closer. "It's been a very long time, hasn't it?"

"It has…" Kursed, who felt it was difficult to accept her original name, kept her aim at the feline. "By the way… It's Kursed."

"So that's where you went off to…" Wolf commented.

"Traitor…"

Kursed was immediately angered by the insult, and fired a shot from her AKS-74U at the bottle of beer next to Leon Powalski, the chameleon. "I dare you! Say it again!" She didn't want to be called a traitor… Not after last time…

The hedgecat intervened. "Hey, hey! Focus!" He turned to Star Wolf, who recognised him thereafter. "Y'aight you buncha numpties?"

"Gabriel? Damn you!" Leon cursed.

"You're quite popular, aren't you?" Kursed joked.

Panther once again made an attempt to flirt: "Oh why should he be popular when a beauty like you should be on mainstream media?"

The vixen fired another warning shot, this time at Panther's bottle of beer next to him. She grinned, satisfied when he stood in place, shocked by the threatening shot. "Maybe I will… For the wrong reasons but your wish would come true." She glanced over to his face, and wondered: 'Why did I fall for him…?' Back then, she didn't know, neither cared… But now it made her curious.

"Enough with the chit-chat." Gabriel interrupted before going to the downed 'Rise'. Pulling the bounty hunter by his hair, he put the end of the barrel of his rifle on his chest. "Alright mate; we've been looking fer ya and you know why!"

The tiger was full of fear, and by the looks of it, he already knew Gabriel, first hand. "It's about McCloud right!?" He laughed nervously. "I don't know where he is, I swear!" He pleaded for mercy with his fear filled tone of voice. The others couldn't help him, and had to watch his torment.

Gabriel smashed the tiger's head on the floor, and pulled him back up, not caring about the blood splattering over his vest. "Don't make me have to torture you to death to get the information out of ya! I still remember what you did in Macbeth you cunt!"

"A little overkill…" Wolf commented, finding it a little over the top for a mercenary like Frost.

Upon hearing the mentioning of Macbeth, the vixen realised that this man, Rise, was the traitor to Frost's former fleet mates. She wondered whether she'll be treated like this by Fox… If she ever saw him. They had seen each other before in Kew, but he didn't recognise her.

"Alright! I fucked up! I gave away our positions and pulled the team into a trap! Do anything but don't kill me!" Rise feared death and begged for mercy…

The hedgecat rested the gun on his back and the pulled up the tiger by the collar of his shirt, before pinning to a table. "D'you want the same thing that happened to your family to happen to Fox!? You given him to Andross forces, but the bastirt will still tear the system apart! You had m'mates killed!" Frost was beginning to break one of his rules, focus… However, it was key to brining out the needed information. "Terry, Price, Tiffany, Jonathon, Commander Jenkins! They're all fockin' dead because of you, and if you don't tell me anything, Andross' forces will send us all to the shitebag sooner or later unless you tell me what I need!"

The tiger looked away… Tears flowed down his cheek. He couldn't care less anymore that he was bleeding or that his 'snitching' would get him killed…

Kursed throughout the speech had managed to get the memories off of Rise… He was blackmailed in to providing information about the fleet and had them ambushed so that his family would be spared from a forced poverty. He had a wife and daughter… And he loved them dearly.

Thugs and gangs had always caused problems and often Rise would have to find jobs in the Cornerian fleet and landed himself in the elite fleet, but it was hard to send money everyday as wars tear their home apart.

As times passed, he became desperate and then was offered a large sum of cash from an Andross loyalist, who happened to create a situation for black mail. Rise later returned home, as a convict but a wealthy convict… In riches, but merely realised the truth… Promises with the enemy are never kept on both parties. His family was dead.

Frost didn't want to tell the whole story, but now she had it, and then felt that the two former friends both had families, and both lost them. But with the both of them thinking, Frost realised the truth… He had other reasons to fight rather than just for the money. "Come on… What do we have to lose? Our fleet is dead, our family, and yours too."

The hedgecat let go of Rise, and allowed him to compose his broken down state. After a few moments, the tiger looked to the mix-breed. "He was transferred from Titania… Maybe you'll find something there."

Gabriel smiled, and felt compassion or his friend. As much as his friend had taken away so much from him, the mix-breed wanted to start him over. "Don't be such a pussy… You don't want to live the life you have now, do you?"

The tiger shook his head in response. "It's all the information I really have… Fox was taken by the Venomian forces. Andross loyalists…" He then turned to Frost with a smile. The smile between the two was shared for the moment. "Your smirk hasn't changed much eh?"

"Nah…" Gabriel prompted Kursed to lower her weapon. Star Fox was no particular threat, though all of them stayed alert to some extent. However, Gabriel foolishly let his guard down for Rise, as the tiger's eyes produced tears. "An appropriate time to cry, eh?" The mix-breed sarcastically remarked… But in a single moment, a crash sounded as blood splattered over the mix-breed…

Everyone in the café realised that the tiger had been shot in the head, by a sniper. It was so sudden, but Rise somehow knew… That the information that he revealed made him a dead man walking, now a dead man. "Rise! NO!" Gabriel cried out in disbelief. Another crash of gunfire sounded, and he was forced to take cover.

All the others took cover by dropping prone on the floor.

The hedgecat looked to his dead friend, and shut his eyes before remaining focused. He looked out the café's window and saw a figure from a partial distance from this building and in the vantage point of the opposite building. "The cunt's just up there."

"Can we hit him at that range without support optics?"

"Of course. I need some bait." Gabriel requested. "Anyone want to volunteer?"

Leon refused: "That's suicide!"

"Look, he's panic firing since he realised we were armed, and he's not prepared to shoot a dynamically moving target, so do as I say and give him something to shoot at!"

The vixen grew impatient and decided to act as the bait. She ran out into the open and avoided each and every shot until one actually pierced through her shoulder. "Argh! Damn it!" She fell down by the powerful shot, though still able to stand, she couldn't risk it. As she was shot, another crash of gunfire sounded, and a distant cry of pain was heard. She sighed in relief. The adrenaline that suppressed the pain however faded and a stinging sensation overwhelmed her, predominately from the source. She reached for it but left it, as touching it wouldn't be a good idea.

The hedgecat examined the wound, and saw that the round had not stopped and was able to pencil through, though not shattering a bone. "That'll be infected if we don't treat it soon." He ejected a bullet from his gun and broke the bullet off the casing. "Lie back."

The vixen slowly laid herself back on the floor, and felt a powdery substance drop onto her wound. While not particularly enhancing the sting, it had more or less irritated. "W-what are you doing?" She nervously asked.

Reaching for his inner pocket, he took hold of a small box, and pulled it out. It was the small box of cigarettes he had before. He then noticed a sign that said 'NO SMOKING'. "I hate the no smoking in public rule..." He opened it and used his lips to take hold of one. Reaching into his inner pocket again he produced a lighter from it. Igniting a small flame, he lit up the cigarette and inhaled an unhealthy breath. He then shoved the light part of the cigarette to ignite the gunpowder that he poured on the wound.

The vixen cried out in pain, but was held down for a few moments before she felt the stinging sensation suddenly feel faint. Sitting herself up, the blue vixen sighed and felt partially more secure about her wound.

"Not trying to interrupt, but…" Wolf O'Donnell wanted answers. "What's going on?"

The hedgecat examined the room and felt that the place is secure. He took a table cover and used it to cover the dead body of Rise. "Fox McCloud was declared MIA."

"Odd… He's not part of his team. The poor pup lost himself since the team disbanded. I felt so sorry for the kid; I don't even try to dogfight him."

"Give the cunt a break, you know he's lost a lot more than you can imagine…" He stood and walked towards the entranced, followed by Kursed. "A man like you wouldn't understand. You say you accept losses… But only one can truly accept a loss by feeling as if they were the reason he or she lost who ever it was…"

The vixen halted Frost. "Wait… I need to talk to Panther…"

Reluctant, however, he submitted to Kursed's request and waited at the entrance, whilst the vixen proceeded to Panther.

"So… You've come back to Panther, have you? I knew I was irresistible…"

The Cerenian fox at first glanced at the Cornerian feline, who sent an impish grin at her. She then had a powerful flash of memory… The memory of self-disgust. Her gaze returned upon him, but it was of grimace. "Shut it…"

"Huh…?" Panther was confused. He knew Krystal was hostile to certain people, but he thought they had already gone past all that and become 'acquainted' with each other.

She felt like putting her gun on him and pulling the trigger, get it over with, but it truly wouldn't help her. "You're the reason why Fox left me…" She slapped the feline with a mighty strike.

He rubbed his cheek, not retaliating, but rather surprised. He however said in dull tone: "Ow."

"Ooh, he likes it rough." Leon joked.

She pointed her finger of accusation and berated Panther. "Had I not met you, and had you not sounding so much more gentleman-like than Fox, none of this would've happened!"

"Oh? My fault?" Panther rhetorically asked. "Maybe I provoked something, but never actually caused any of this… You made the choices… Like that night…"

"Don't… Don't you dare…"

"Where you-"

She interrupted: "Don't you dare!" She drew her pistol on the Panther. She didn't want him to reveal the truth.

Wolf found the situation intriguing, at the same time, very powerful and partially moving. He didn't show it however.

"You know you did it. You chose me… You… Slept… With me…"

Filled with a powerful rage, she threw a punch that Panther couldn't block in time. The strike knocked him down, and at the same time, knocked him out cold. Though it satisfied her somehow to attack Panther, she started to break down. Her eyes filled with tears… It truly was her fault, everything was…

Panther regained consciousness but was still pained by the strike. He turned to the mix-breed mercenary and the blue furred vixen bounty hunter.

Gabriel tended to her and sat her down on a chair. "Sh-shhh… Kursed? Kursed look at me!" He pulled her gaze to him. "Kursed! Get a hold of yourself! We leave! Now! I need my fighters all in their best condition and right now I have a cryin' bitch! This isn't you! You're Kursed! Krystal was left behind because you felt like you needed a fresh start!"

"But I can't!" Her mind was finally at breaching point and only in a day as well… It felt as though she wanted to die. The truth of everything she involved herself in, was destroyed because of her.

"Kursed! You are a bounty hunter! Right now you're not showing me who you really are! You're not Krystal anymore, not the old Krystal anymore. Repeat it…"

The vixen took the time to repeat it… She felt like a mental patient.

Gabriel scorned Panther, and helped Kursed up. She followed him out and he kept the vixen to recite and repeat…

Sometime after finding accommodation and obtaining their equipment, the bounty hunter felt more calm than earlier. Her wound was properly dressed with bandages. She had green tea in hands, and her hands were able to salvage the steaming heat.

Remembering back to her relationship with Panther… It seemed at the time very romantic and powerful, and loving. The feelings were genuine, but a burning desire for McCloud made her question her choice. Eventually she regretted her decision and attempted to find him, until Panther said a haunting sentence…

"When are you ever going to learn that Fox won't appreciate you as much as I do? You're his trophy, you're my lover…"

His tone of voice was so soft… So intoxicating… She allowed Panther's approach, as he slowly wrapped his arms around her waist. "Panther…" Her cheeks flushed red. "Are you sure we should do this?"

He pressed his lips upon her neck before responding to her question. "There's no one else in this bed room of Panther to stop us." He helped her to lift her shirt off. She didn't resist him, and he kept going, pressing more and more kisses. His hands had found her soft melons, and a sudden drive of lust overwhelmed him. He begun to squeeze her soft flesh, and continued to press kisses on her neck. "I want you so badly…"

"Panther… I…" Kursed's mind was filled with a conflicting battle; the moment of heat however was favouring one side over the other… She couldn't resist Panther's tempting offer to make her feel 'amazing'. She never had sex with Panther before, or anyone, but had masturbated before, and understands how much pleasure it can give… "More…"

"More?" Panther rhetorically asked. He helped Krystal pulled down the panties to her ankles. He saw Krystal's flower, and blinked at the pretty sight. "That, I can give…" Slowly he lifted her up onto him. The head of his phallus slowly inched its way into her.

Krystal knew the pleasures of sex… But never felt so fulfilled… Until the very end of the heated moment… Everything felt amazing and drove her insane with passion…

Now look at where she was… Truly her fault.

"Don't think about Caroso… He's a true prick." He handed her a small plate of ginger biscuits. "You know we all make mistakes…"

"But… How can I justify that I had sex with Panther? How can I wash away all these bad memories?" She encircled her finger around the tea cup. "I can't… I just can't. No matter what I do, I'll always have that bloody memory in the back of my mind! Fox will never forgive me… Never…"

"And how would you know?"

"I just… Know…" She said.

The mercenary took a seat and sipped his tea. "Tell me… When have you ever been able to read Fox's mind?"

She put some thought into it, but then realised every time she did, she wouldn't receive any form of thought… He didn't attempt to block any thoughts, but she never saw his thoughts.

"There's a myth about Angels, Demons and Preternatural beings. You can read minds, and that counts enough." A sip of his hot tea… "It is believed that if one finds his or her lifemate, he or she will not be able to read the other's mind, not be able to manipulate them, and always have powerful thoughts of them and vice versa…" He stood up. "We'll return to the ship tomorrow."

She heard of the myth before, but never believed it… Putting some thought in to it, the idea became plausible! She looked to Gabriel, however, he had already left the room. Turning to the ginger biscuits, she just took one and bit into it. 'Is Fox… My lifemate?'

_**Authors Note: Things will be answered eventually, I do know there are some unanswered questions. I won't leave 'em hanging **_


	3. Chapter 3: Insanity

Early morning, the two had woken up and decided to make their way to visit Tricky. Kursed, as much as she knows the risk of Tricky bringing back some tough to swallow memories of Fox, and asking questions that could even emphasise on that, nostalgia had overwhelmed her. Though she didn't directly ask Gabriel about visiting Tricky, he caught on and offered instead.

It was a quiet walk but it had gotten to the hedgecat. He becomes impatient when he doesn't talk, or miss breakfast. He groaned for a moment before he looked to Kursed. "So what was the deal with you and Panther?" He asked, distracting his attention away from the hunger that churned in his stomach.

The blue furred vixen didn't actually want to talk about it, but she saw the urging look on Gabriel's face. "You won't tell anyone about it, will you?" She asked.

"Of course I won't" Gabriel seemed trustworthy enough.

The blue vixen grimaced at her own memories of Panther, surprisingly, because before she used to be infatuated and intoxicated by his advances and arousing antics. Looking back at it now, she felt disgusted that she even had feelings for the feline. "We were a couple… And we had sex. Is there really much to say?" She shuddered just after she said that.

The hedgecat reached for his box of cigarettes and lighter, and upon opening it, noticed that there were two cigarettes left. He offered the second cigarette after his lips took hold of the other. "You smoke?"

She shook her head and turned down the offer. "Smoking is bad for you. It can cause lung cancer and stuff."

"They always say that shite. I know people who lived to the age of 93 and they smoked and drank, while the many others who try not to die younger. They always bullshiete us with 'cancer is caused by this' and 'cancer is caused by that'…" He lit the cigarette and began to inhale the smoke. "Anyways…" He continued, "Maybe it's because Panther wasn't the one you truly had feelings for. Maybe you really just ran away for another reason that the Cornerian population being a bunch of twats."

The blue vixen thought about it; the upsetting mockery was hard hitting, but what really happened before she left… "I left a message for Fox. It told him the truth, about what I did with Panther. I didn't want to know how he'd react, so I just left thereafter."

The black furred hedgecat looked to his colleague, and held his still lit cigarette by his fingers. "It's human to be a coward, but being human is important. The next step is becoming brave enough to stand up to your fears." He replaced the cigarette back to his lips and continued the routine.

The bounty hunter turned to the mercenary. He was right, but somehow, he also made her feel better. "Is there anything you fear?"

The mercenary turned to the vixen with a raised brow. He put it into some thought before responding: "I fear for the sake of my family."

"But I thought you said your family is dead. You know, the crew?"

"Well I can tell you I lost the crew and call them family, but to think I didn't have a love life myself is just plain gullibility my good lass." He smiled to himself, before drawing a locket and showing a picture of his 'family', and he was in the picture as well. "My daughter and wife."

Kursed found it a little surprising that the professional mercenary like him would even take up the mercenary life. He had a wife, and a daughter, and he was here risking his life to save another life. "Why take up the job?"

"Because they trust me. A lot of people eventually do after they first meet me." He threw away the finished cigarette and lamented: "Life is a waterfall, we're one in the river and one again after the fall. The jobs I have taken to this day are my fall… But eventually I will return home."

"Wise words for a professional mercenary, you're different to the others. By your tag name, I thought you'd be one cold bugger, but you're alright." Kursed commented.

The hedgecat chuckled. "You're gonna regret that, I'm cold when I have to be." He said in a joking manner. He stopped as he felt a churn within his stomach, and it wasn't the hunger this time. He remembered that Fox used to lament: "Trust your instincts…" And right now, he trusted them. "Something's wrong."

"What?" She asked, readying her weapon.

Cautiously, he advanced forward and climbed atop a small cliff. Having a good look over, he used his binoculars to see from a distance. "Krazoa palace?"

"Krazoa palace!?" Kursed gasped. She followed Frost and decided to have a look herself. As she saw the huge temple, a weird sense of nostalgia hit over her. "This is where I met Fox…" It had been a while since they last visited Krazoa palace, and she always used to beg the vulpine to return the place. They never really had the chance since the Anglar Blitz and the Aparoid invasion ruined all their plans.

The hedgecat looked out and noticed multiple figures patrolling the temple outskirts, armed with modern weaponry. He then noticed that there were dinosaurs and others in chains. "Fockin' hostage situation. Ready the weapons, we're going in."

"This isn't part of the job." Kursed commented.

Gabriel ignored her and continued either way. "I ain't letting these twats do the dirty, come on!" He pulled the charging handle of his rifle and charged towards the palace.

Unable to stop him, she reluctantly followed him. "Are you crazy!?"

Gabriel stopped her as they took cover behind a rock. A guard had his attention away and was isolated from the others. "There's one over there. Let's see if he has breakfast." He drew a tomahawk from his trench coat. He slowly made his way forwards and noticed a few branches on the floor. He purposely stepped on them but the guard didn't turn. "Oi, Suzy!" He called out to the armed Venomian soldier. As he turned, Gabriel quickly swung the blade at him, cutting through the helmet and killing him in one fell swoop. The body fell to the floor lifeless.

Kursed closed in on Gabriel who began to search for something on the body. "What are you doing?" She asked.

The mix-breed found a can of tuna, and grimaced. "Bah! Tuna!" He threw the can on the floor and continued searching.

"What? Don't like it?" She would expect anyone with cat in them to like tuna or fish in general. She kept a look out for the mix-breed who continued to search for food to fill his stomach. "You really are grumpy without breakfast, huh?"

As she said that, Gabriel finally found something he could eat: a bar of chocolate. Greedily he unwrapped the package like a gift and consumed the unhealthy but satisfying bar of chocolate. After a bit of chewing, he began to undress the dead guard. "I have an idea." He said after swallowing the mush of chocolate. He managed to remove the clothing off the guard and handed it to Kursed.

"I hope you know what you're doing." She proceeded to put on the outfit, but stopped herself. "Turn around Frost…" The hedgecat agreed to the request and turned away. The vixen removed her gear, and her clothes followed. Throwing them aside, the clothes and old gear became a puddle of fabric. Finally slipping herself into the uniform, she replaced the equipment into the uniform's pouches. She strapped her weapons on her back.

The hedgecat concealed his weapons within his coat, and placed his hands behind his back, but held the handgun. "Alright, you have me captured, got it?"

The vixen agreed and pretended to hold his hands together and stood him up. "So we're gonna waltz in there?"

"Not exactly."

She didn't find it exactly comforting what he said, but followed the plan. They continued to the main entrance of Krazoa palace, and two guards stood ready whilst a third in the background awaited. "I found this one snooping around."

One of the guards didn't recognise Kursed from her face. "You one of the newbies?" He asked. "I nevah seen a hot chick like you befoare."

The hedgecat broke his hands free and readied his handgun, shooting both guards down in fast motion. They fell to the ground and were incapacitated, before they were finished off by the mercenary who walked past them and shot them dead without having to look at them.

The bounty hunter found this act fairly cold, even by her own standards. She followed the hedgecat however, not questioning his actions. What impressed her however was the fact he gunned them both down in lightning speed.

The mercenary revealed his rifle and noticed the third guard attempting to warn the others. He quickly fired at the guard and shot him down dead. "Good night."

The vixen examined the dead guards, and noticed the tattoos on their arms, which were of something she had never seen before. "What the…" She turned to Frost. "Hey, you may want to look at this."

The mix-bred mercenary approached Kursed and had a look at the tattoo that she presented. The tattoo was one he remembered a long time ago… "That's not good." He commented.

"What is it? What does it mean?"

The hedgecat said nothing for a moment but kept away from the subject. "Look lassy, we have no time for small talk. Free the prisoners, and let's dash."

The vixen found his sudden change of tone unnerving, and she didn't want to disobey a direct order from someone who can unnerve one who is meant to strike deep into the hearts of others. She realised that she is merely a choir girl compared to him.

Reaching the prisoners, she saw that no one else guarded them. Taking the key that she had in the uniform's pocket, she unlocked the chains of the captive. "Is everyone okay here?"

Some of them nodded whilst others just ran away. The last prisoner she freed was Tricky, whom was an old friend of hers. "Thank you very much Miss." The dinosaur was grateful to his heroine.

It saddened her that her old friend doesn't recognise her, but acknowledge the fact that he wouldn't have remembered. It had been far too long. "Just go, it is best that you leave. I'm sure you're not a particular fan of violence."

"Are you kidding? I used to fight in the past!" Tricky exclaimed. "You remind me of someone I use to see before." He commented, noticing some familiar features from the vixen's face.

The blue furred vixen smiled. "Sometimes, there's always the one person who you'll remember, just by looking at someone else." She wasn't the same girl she was before… She was nothing like her… Or was she?

The prince of the earth-walkers had left, safe to live and fight another day.

She was just about to lose her composure, and all because she met someone who she remembered, but had not remembered her. How life comes at its irony that she promised to forget when they have forgotten first… Except the few. Did Fox forget her? Does he want to remember her? Her mind snapped out of its trance when she heard gunfire from within the palace. She held her carbine in hand and quickly made her way inside.

The hedgecat was making short work of his foes, as they fired at him but he gunned them down without effort. He slid into cover to shield himself from the lasers and plasma projectiles that came his way. "Ya twats can't shoot for shiete!" Unloading the empty magazine of his carbine, he slapped off the magazine and reloaded with a new one. Pulling the charging handle, he stood up and returned fire. "Come on!"

Two more men fell to the gunfire. The Venomians were losing ground to one man. "What the hell!? How hard is it to kill one man!?" The Venomian captain cried out. He turned to two of his specialists who were armed with katana swords, and with a click of the fingers, urged them to go.

The hedgecat realised that the gunfire had stopped. "Is that all the sub-ordinates you have? Bring some more!" He received no response and continued up a hallway. Just as he did, he heard Kursed call out for him.

"Frost!" The vixen cried out, trying to catch up with the hedgecat who was far ahead. When she saw two other figures behind him, she shouted: "Behind you!"

The hedgecat turned to see two charging figures. He managed to dodge their attack, and turned and drew his tomahawk. Seeing his foes armed with katana swords, he smirked. "Nice swords." He complimented, but received no response back. Instead, one of the masked men attacked first by swinging his sword forward. Managing to block it, the other man charged and thrust his sword forward, but he used the locked sword to deflect the other.

The two men swung their swords at the hedgecat, but he deflected both and caused the two to clash into each other. Managing to avoid hurting each other, the two gestured an apology before returning their attention to their adversary.

The hedgecat once again blocked an attack from the first attacker, locking his sword with his tomahawk. The second attacker readied his strike. Seeing his attack, he threw off the first man, before releasing his tomahawk mid air. Stylishly, he spun around clockwise in a 360 degree angle and caught his tomahawk, at the same time, slashing at the second attacker's chest. Though it didn't incapacitate him, it was a wound nonetheless.

Kursed couldn't get a good shot and was forced to close in. She ran as fast as she could in hopes of assisting the mercenary. Just as she closed in, she quickly intercepted the first attacker's strike at Frost. The fight was even to some extent, with both Frost and Krystal having to fight their own foes. She wasn't well armed for a melee fight so she had to rely on the small knife she had.

The hedgecat managed to deflect an attack, and doing so stunned his attacker. With a powerful thrust of his foot, he kicked away his foe. "Come on, is that all you have?" Feeling overconfident, he threw aside the blade.

The soldier angrily curled his hand into a tight fist, and charged with his blade. He was fast, swinging from left to right, right to lift, down to up and up to down, thrust by swing. As fast as he was, all of his attacks were dodged. However, after throwing a successful punch at the hedgecat and stunning him, he swung his katana to decapitate him.

Kursed managed to deflect an attack from her own enemy, and managed to drop him. She turned to Frost who was about to by struck. "Frost!"

The hedgecat saw the strike and had no time to dodge. Instead he put his hands forward… What he had been able to do thereafter surprised all four of them, and even more so, was inhuman… He stopped the blade by his bare hands.

"Impossible…" Kursed whispered.

The hedgecat smirked and threw off the katana wielding foe, looking at his hands he showed that the blade did little to his hands but cut through the fabric of his gloves. "Sharp blade, but not sharp enough." He took out his combat knife and gestured the man forward. "If that's the best you have, you better start pushing yourself better."

The attacker swung his blade but staggered from the undisciplined swing.

Seeing the opportunity, he threw his knife at the attacker's knee. The attacker screamed in pain as he knelt down. "I can make the pain go easily." He raised his leg up high and dropped it on his head, the force so excessive it turned it to mush. Bones and bits and pieces of flesh were all that's left.

Kursed couldn't hold her attacker any longer as he threw her off. She stood with her knife ready but the attacker kicked away her blade. "No!" She cried. Unable to defend herself, the attacker thrust his blade forwards to stab her. She closed her eyes, ready for her demise… "Fox…" She whispered. The sound of the blade piercing was made, but it wasn't her who faultered… She opened her eyes to see it was Frost who took the blade for her.

"Bloody hell lassy… This hurts you know!"

Thinking fast, she took the revolver from Gabriel's hand and shot the soldier in the head, putting him down for good.

The hedgecat kneeled down, whimpering as the sword was still stuck through his chest. "Fock! Urgh! Pull it out!"

"Are you crazy!? You'll bleed to death!"

"Trust me!" He claimed.

Hesitantly, she held the blade by the handle, tightening her grip on it. It bled profusely, and it sickened her to some extent, since most of her kills weren't as messy. "Don't say I didn't warn you…" She pulled the blade out and threw it aside.

The hedgecat cried out in pain but then stood as if nothing happened; instead he jumped about as if he took a shot of adrenaline. "Whoa! Bloody hell, what a rush!"

The vixen looked at the hedgecat, with a gaping mouth. She couldn't believe that one could shrug off such a dangerously fatal wound like that. "That's impossible!" She examined the cut from both sides, and the wound had healed. "How the…" She couldn't explain it, she had never seen anyone heal this fast. It was inhuman; no normal man or woman could survive this, no one!

After a few moments of just staring, she felt some sort of aura around him. A dark power that surrounded him… "What are you?"

The hedgecat only took back his tomahawk and said nothing.

"Frost, what are you?" She repeated sternly. Still getting no response she just continued to glare at him.

The glare was piercing, and he felt it. He turned to the vixen. "Well… I ain't mortal if that's what you're asking."

"Then what are you?" She asked, folding her arms below her chest.

The hedgecat shook his head. "That's for another time. Right now, we're going forwards." He proceeded on, not waiting for a response.

Kursed couldn't make it out. She couldn't tell what Frost really was but continued either way. Somehow, she was out of her comfort zone. Whatever Gabriel was, it was definitely not human. He could read minds, healed from fatal wounds, was faster and stronger than a normal mortal, and had an aura surrounding him. From hostility spawned a sort of interest. But she'll have to wait for the truth.

After walking through the long hallway, they stopped themselves as they saw a man in a Cornerian General outfit. Frost raised his rifle and aimed it at him. They stood on a floating floor that was far from the ground.

"You're tougher than you look. I should've known you'd be here!" The General exclaimed, tightening his fist in anger.

"Shears. Pleasant to see you again. Up to no good eh?" The infamous Shears was popular among Cornerian military officials for his betrayal. Most thought he had died during an assault on Titania by Star Fox.

"No good? No… I'm just doing what Andross wanted. He will return soon, and when he does, he will conquer the Lylat system once again!" He laughed insanely.

The hedgecat felt a dark presence, but said nothing and continued. "What is your plan here, Shears?"

"The Krazoa spirits are powerful sources of energy and essence that my master needs. We have extracted them… All of them…"

Though he knew Sauria would be fine, the Krazoa spirits could prove a step up to revive Andross, as he knew the story of how he revived himself before. "What? Trying to pose as the deity once again?" He readied his trigger finger and straightened his arms. "You do know what the Krazoa spirits will do if absorbed as a fail safe."

"Indeed we know, but it is the plan."

Kursed didn't know what either of them was talking about, but it didn't sound good. She held her rifle ready at the rogue General. "Should we put the doggy down?" She mocked.

The mercenary nodded and was first to pull the trigger. The gun he held crashed loudly and rapidly, the echo of the gunfire bounced everywhere. Once his gun clicked empty, he looked at Shears who fell to his knees as he was filled with lead. He drew his magnum however when Shears stood up with an evil grin.

The vixen blinked in surprise as Shears' wounds began to heal. "If this is some kind of nightmare, I should wake up now before it gets worse…"

The rogue General charged armed with a rapier. "DIE!" He cried out. He swung his puny weapon at Kursed who managed to dodge the attack, but he caught her when she barely stood straight, punching her in the left eye.

The hedgecat barely dodged the attack but almost fell off the edge of the floor, but as he managed to balance himself, Shears knocked him off. Recovering quickly, he managed to take grip of the edge. "Bugger!"

"This is my message to the Cornerian army!" Shears declared as he stomped on the hedgecat's foot. He was satisfied to see him fall, but felt that the lack of a scream seemed a little disappointing.

"Frost!"

The hedgecat didn't scream, but instead he reached for his last cigarette and lit it midair, 'til he hit the ground hard. The force of impact was so extensive due to the acceleration; he crashed hard onto the floor.

The General could not make out how the hedgecat looked from the distance of the ground and his short eyesight. Nonetheless, he turned to the vixen and smiled cynically. "Oh such a pretty little thing… It's sad that I'll have to end your life as well." He drew his pistol and aimed it at Kursed.

She wasn't going down today, and instead she drew her handgun and fired at Shears, managing to shoot the pistol off his hand, she felt more confident. She continued to fire at him but he continued to slowly walk forwards. As he got close, she had realised she had fired all her bullets, and none of them did anything to slow or stop him. "No!"

The rogue General took held of the vixen by her collar, smirking as he used his left hand to lift her off the ground and grab her by the neck. "Mortals… Fragile little things, nothing more; maybe you can serve a purpose to be one of 'us'."

She struggled but to no a dew. "What, ugh, does that mean!?" She asked, still struggling to breath and flailing her legs about.

"Do you not know what I am?" He pulled her close and whispered into her ear: "I am a demon…"

"D-d-demon!?"

He laughed and threw her aside, just managing to throw her off the edge, but he saw her catch the ledge. He proceeded forwards and used his right foot to step on her hand.

"Nrgh...!" She could barely hold on, let alone the fact she held back a scream of pain, trying to avoid showing a weakness.

"Yes, a demon! Hahaha! Demons do exist, child, and we've existed for a long time…" He then thought back to his death in Titania. "Though I wasn't born a demon, I became one thanks to my master's efforts! But without him, the Venomian army is little more than a weak militia. But you see, we strive for true power! Power beyond that which you can speak of!" He laughed out loud with a cynical tone once again.

She couldn't believe it… Demons… "Demons exist…?" She whispered.

"Of course… Demons exist…" He repeated before raising his foot to stomp of Kursed's hand which barely held on. Just as he was to stomp, he was held by his shoulder. "What the-!?" Before he could finish, he saw a knife stab down his arm, and in fashion he reacted to the pain. He cried out and retreated away from his attack and turned to see Frost, who had survived the fall.

The vixen climbed and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw that Gabriel was alive.

The hedgecat patted his trench coat to get the dust away. "Angels exist too." The mercenary commented.

"An Angel!? How can it be!?" Shears tried to pull out his second pistol with his still functioning arm, before it was severed by a powerful shot from Gabriel's magnum. "GYAHHH!" He fell to the floor and held his severed limb as it profusely bled. The magnum shot was no ordinary shot, as it was able to tear through his demonic limb.

The vixen forced herself up on the platform and sighed in relief as she was safe from a fall. "Thank God…" That's the only one who she can thank as of now.

The mercenary walked up to the rogue General and stomped on his chest and held him down, aiming at the weakened foe. "You're going to talk. Where is Fox McCloud, and what do they intend to do with him!?"

"That charged shot; that cannot be done by a low level Angel, it's just not possible!" He claimed. He tried to force himself to fight but the strength of the mercenary was superior to his.

"Start talking or I'll sever another limb! I'll do it!" He warned.

"Don't you d-GYAAAAAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHHHH!" He cried out in pain as his other arm was severed by a powerful shot.

Not amused, the hedgecat punched the rogue General in the face. He didn't care that blood sprayed over him, and ignored it. "Answer me you blighter, I can go at this all day!" He threatened.

The General submitted to his pain. "Okay, okay! The only thing I know is that they last moved him from Titania when they spotted a Cornerian fleet establish a policing order there!"

"By who!? Who was the one who established the Cornerian fleet thar!?" He shook the armless General.

"Falco! Falco! That's all I know, I swear, just please, don't hurt me no more!"

The hedgecat left the General alone and went to the vixen. He noticed her right eye being bruised from the fight. "Are y'a'ight lass?"

She said nothing but nodded… Then: "You fell… You should be dead." Escaped her mouth. It was impossible; this had to be a dream. However, no matter how hard she tried to wake up, she was already awake and denying what she had saw would be impossible to now. If she tried to explain this situation to anyone else, she'd be deemed a raving lunatic.

The hedgecat chuckled and helped the blue furred vixen up. "I have a lot of explaining to do." He said. Looking up, he noticed a stray Krazoa spirit that floated above them. He shook his head in disappointment.

"Is something wrong?"

He nodded in response. "Almost all the Krazoa spirits had been absorbed… I guess they missed the last one. But they still have enough to resurrect that bastirt Andross." He sighed. He held his arm out and allowed the spirit to enter him.

The bounty hunter had felt a spirit enter her before, but whenever she did, it'd be a short stinging sensation, and it would also carry her across the room before her body tamed it. The hedgecat just stood in place as it were nothing. She shook her head, and compared past events to what she is seeing now. "Maybe you really do need to explain things to me."

The two left the palace without a word, and walked to the direction of the ship, also without a word. Shears was left for dead.

The equipment was all put away. The two were in the medical bay; where Frost was able to properly treat the wounds that had Kursed had received during the course of the operation on Sauria. He had advanced equipment, and special first aid kits that seemed more expensive since they had within them a rare drug known as 'Nerotonin-2'.

They didn't really need any advanced drugs or equipment; instead the hedgecat just had a bag of frozen peas to use on her black eye, and gauze and tape for her bullet wound. "So… You're not human. I gathered that." She contemplated her theory, thinking about whether it was an appropriate assumption. "Are you a… Demon?"

He smirked and put away the items he did not need to use anymore. "Nah… I'm the opposite." He claimed.

"Opposite…? Angel?" She asked.

"That's the one." He agreed. "Well, Guardian Angel. We used to be called 'Earthbound Angels' but now we're just named the Guardian Angels. Sounds catchy, eh?"

At first, she had the idea that fear would overtake her, but it didn't. Instead, she just registered and nodded. "Angels and Demons exist huh?" It makes sense that there are spirits of the kind, but never knew that powerful beings lived among the populace of the Lylat System, and possibly beyond considering the fact that Gabriel was able to make contact with her.

"A lot of other creatures exist too. But the predominant preternatural species are both Angels and Demons." Gabriel explained.

Fascinated, she urged: "Tell me more about it…"

The hedgecat shrugged his shoulders and closed the medicine cupboards. Taking a seat on the 'doctor's seat' he took a sip of his coffee. "Hmm… It dates back to a long time ago. Angels and Demons were just spirits that never got involved with the mortal populations of any world. We were mutually at peace despite the differences." After another pause and sip of the hot black liquid, he continued. "A high ranking demon, one day decided to take things to his own accord, and managed to persuade a mortal mage to create a hell gate He did, and demons who supported him had emerged from the underworld. The demon and his minions however were banished."

"Sounds a lot like Andross, when he was banished from Corneria for doing something he wasn't supposed to do."

He nodded in agreement. He gulped down the last of the hot coffee and put the mug aside. "The demon, found a way to persuade many other demons however to join him, and they did. So the Angels had to step in and do the same, only they were more direct. To be a spiritual angel, you have to be dead and not physical, but an equal number of angels formed a physical body to possess, at the cost of it being a permanent body."

"Were you one of them?"

"No, no!" He responded, chuckling. "I'd be too old…" He joked. He continued on: "And then both parties engaged in a battle, but neither party did officially win. Many survivors from both parties who saw the carnage had been changed. Some Angels became rogue, some Demons sought redemption, others lusted for more blood and many Angels dedicated their lives to help the mortals."

The bounty hunter kept her right eye closed as the ice numbed the bruise. "They must be legends to now."

He paused and turned to the vixen. "They are, but the problem of being any kind of preternatural is aging. Angels and Demons can never age after their early twenties; some of the other preternatural species can't age neither whilst others take long to age. I've seen a werewolf who was eight-hundred years old but looked as though he was forty."

"Wow…" Kursed commented.

Gabriel smiled before continuing to the next segment of the story. "After a couple of decades from the fierce battle, both Demons and Angels had spawned children, some had half-cast demon and mortal children. My mother was half angel herself." He could remember his mother well. "My mother met a man named Micheal, my father. He was one of the older angels who had actually fought in the battle. The two fell in love and then I was born."

The thought of Gabriel's parents being in love made her feel partially envious, but she liked a good romantic story. She had parents, but lost them since Andross destroyed Cerenia. It upset her, but she has to move on… "Keep going." She urged.

"I was born a high ranking Angel. It's a random selection of born Angels, both full and half cast, bearing a specific element. They are more faster, more powerful and can tolerate more pain than the 'normal' Guardian Angels. We are often the frontline grunts, but nonetheless the ones who get things done." He paused for a moment and looked through his wallet, before finding a picture of his younger self posed with his parents.

She examined the picture, and smiled when she saw the beauty on the mother's face. They all smiled, but what was interesting was that Frost had Angel wings sprung out, the only one in the picture as well. Add the fact that the wings were black; there were a few new questions to add. "I'd expect Angels to have white wings, and why are your parents without wings? Got an explanation for that?"

To show off, he took off his shirt and forced his wings to spring out from his back. He allowed the vixen to feel the soft, raven black feathers. "My specific element is darkness. It works out fine. I can make a room so dark, the arses within the room would think they've gone blind." He joked. "My mam and da decided to give up their 'immortality' to live a normal life. I kept mine since my ma and da thought I'd be purfect for the bloody job. And when I turned seventeen, I joined the Cornerian academy fleet."

The bounty hunter put aside the frozen peas as she felt the stinging pain of her bruise numb. She kept her hands to herself as she didn't want to feel like she was frisking Frost unnecessarily "You seem to know a lot about this 'Angel and Demon' war."

"I have to be informed about my history." He turned around as his wings retracted into his back. "But don't be so judgemental. Not all demons are bad. Both parties formed a saying… that devils never cry."

She thought about it, and got that a demon can be considered a devil, but still she asked: "What is a devil?"

"That's to your own interpretation." He responded.

Kursed felt like going back to the subject of Gabriel's family. "So…" She sat up and folded her arms. "When did you meet your lovely woman?"

"Oh come on…" The hedgecat's face flushed red as he smiled to himself.

"You're blushing, is it an embarrassing story?"

The mercenary chuckled to himself and poured himself another mug of coffee from the pot. He nodded and his face was even more red than before. "We met at the academy. She was a popular one, I was a loner."

She chuckled and poured herself a mug of coffee. "You seem the type to be a loner."

The mercenary felt like he was talking too much, but either way continued the story. "Well we had a spar… And she noticed how I kept staring at her. So she teased me. The next day she wore a skirt and whenever no one else was lookin', the braw burd bent over to pretend she was pickin' somethin' up. I felt like an arse because I almost lost my composure."

"Well, boys will be boys."

"You know my parents always talk about lifemates. Then one day I decided to ask her out. I felt pretty lucky when she said yes. Like a tosser and a cunt put togethar, I was excited out of my mind."

Kursed smiled for him. "Lucky you." She remembered how she looked in the picture, she looked very pretty, and the dress his lover wore didn't give any sort of indication that she was devious. Taking that in to mind, she thought to how she used to tease Fox. She never really did tease Panther, but he teased her. She felt it to be more thrilling to be the tease.

"Little did I know that it was more than just a crush at the time, and I'll be honest t'God, she was a lucky pick. Most guys would kill to get their hands on her. But nonetheless, they wouldn't."

"Why, you'll put a bullet to their brain?" She jokingly mocked.

He shook his head. "My parents say that they were destined lifemates. Well, I'm one of those guys who believe that destiny is in your hands, but love doesn't seem to be it. This burd that I married and made love to, comforted and enjoyed my life with is my lifemate, my soulmate."

The vixen put her right arm over her chest, gasping a breath of air as she felt a shudder pass through her body down to up. It tingled faintly within her, somewhat very intoxicating as well. "Lifemate…" She repeated.

The hedgecat stood up and made his way to the door, holding his mug on the way. "Maybe Fox is your lifemate." He sarcastically remarked.

"H-how can you be so sure…?"

"No one is ever so sure until they realise it." He replied, leaving her thereafter.

The train of thought began for the bounty hunter. She stood up and looked at the mirror, trying to understand what had she become. She stood, converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, thinking that she was someone else. She wasn't the same Krystal that everyone had known her for. She was Kursed, a bounty hunter, a trained killer for hire.

But then she felt herself stop there… Her new life was just a lie, a mask to hide the truth. She wasn't happy. She had everything… A family made out of friends, a lover, but she betrayed them for the sake of her other lover. Her reflection hadn't really changed; longer hair didn't count for anything. Behind the mask of her alias Kursed, she truly is who she was born as and named by many…

"Krystal…" A voice echoed. "Krystal!" The voice called out to her aloud.

The blue furred vixen awoke from her nap, looking around and adjusting her eyes to the bright light. "Ugh…" She grimaced as she was far too tired to even get out of bed. "Please, give me a few minutes; I barely had any sleep…" All the fighting against the Aparoid fleet really did put a number on her energy. Now that it was finally over however, she was glad to even have peace to herself, but it was pretty short lasted.

The red vulpine brought in a tray, placing it over his love. "Come on, don't be so grumpy. It's early morning and I've made you breakfast."

Had it not been the mention of breakfast, the vixen would've already fallen asleep by now. Her nose flared as it took in the irresistible scent of cinnamon buns, freshly baked ones at that too. "Oh Fox, you shouldn't have…"

The vulpine pecked her on the cheek. "I did. Now eat up, I'm sure that it'll get you going for a bit."

"Oh God, not more work…" Krystal joked. "Okay. But what about you?"

McCloud shook his head. "I'm not really hungry. It's best that you eat, because it's healthy to eat for women especially."

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" She responded sarcastically, raising a brow to add emphasis to it.

"I'll be off. I'll see you later okay?" He stood but halted at the door. "Are you still talking to Panther? They did find Star Wolf alive on Macbeth."

She raised her shoulders. "Well… I've sort of managed to get in contact with him." She said honestly.

"I see…" The vulpine responded dryly, leaving thereafter.

This is the life… Almost everyday, she gets breakfast in bed, with most of her favourite treats to satisfy her palette as well. Fox was always around, but she noticed a strange attitude to the vulpine she called 'her lover'. He was a little too affectionate, and she'd never seen him go over the top with anything. He also seemed to have a little problem with Panther, but she only said that they were friends.

Panther was only a friend and nothing more… He's not really much of anything else but a flirt. Since she had been playing along with his advances, he had become more forward and persistent. It made her a little nervous, but she suspected it was only a short phase that will eventually fade away.

But what if he just becomes more persistent, or even reckless? Highly doubtful, but Panther seemed to be very infatuated with her. It was almost as if he was a predator and she was prey, but couldn't pin point where she was being hunted from.

Not wanting to think of grim thoughts, she just took a bun from the plate and bit into it. Just as she did, she received a private video call from Panther. She was hesitant to answer it, but eventually gave in.

"Oh, someone seems a little less pretty than usual, but then that would contradict with your infinite beauty…" Caroso was always such a flirt, and a flatterer.

She giggled at the comment, and playfully responded: "I thought the prettiest thing to you was your rose."

"It was… Until a met you. The rose could not compare, as I admire its beauty but not what it offers, while with you I admire the beauty and what you can offer."

"Offer?" She didn't like the sound of it.

Caroso smiled and leaned closer towards the camera. "Face it dear Krystal… Fox is far to busy with work and hasn't really flattered you as much as I have. I flatter you every day even if you do not hear it." He continued.

She rolled her eyes, not believing his claims as Fox… She stopped her train of thought as she tried to think about how many times he had complimented her for her looks and personality, and frankly it wasn't many times.

"Sooner or later, he'll just get rid of you like a broken toy. Like this…" He clicked his fingers.

She merely ignored his statement and was about to close the chat, but was halted.

"If it does happen… Panther is waiting…" He was the one to end the chat.

She sat there, with the haunting thought of Fox ridding her off the team. She couldn't live without him! She loved him, she needed him! Could he really get rid of someone who is as loyal as can be?

"Panther is waiting… Panther is waiting… Panther is waiting…" She slowly repeated several times, all of her repeats were of peculiar tone. She looked at her shaking hands; they were shaking as rage filled within her…

"Looks like were passing the 'O'Donnel' space station."

Hearing this, she quickly ran out of the medical bay and forced her way to the armoury. Her mind was clouded by pure anger, yet she didn't care. She picked up her pistol and holstered it, before leaving to find the transport ship that was docked.

In the main cockpit, a warning that the transport ship had left the primary ship showed on his screen. "The fock!? Shiete!" He forced the ship to standby and quickly ran to the docking station where one of the transport aircraft had been hijacked.

In the 'O'Donnel' Space station, one of Wolf's new establishments was a space station for supplies and had a small settlement set up within it. This was owned by Wolf O'Donnel who was given the funding to form this large floating station after being deemed the hero of the Anglar Blitz. It is regarded as one of the most active market space stations and it was very prone to black market trades.

Panther was just in his room, but not alone. He had managed to score two girls at the local night club, and he really had a good time. Though they slept peacefully, he awoke to a strange gut feeling.

Ignoring it, he stood and approached his personal refrigerator, opening it to find something to satisfy his parched lips. He looked at the girls that he had made love to last night, and chuckled to himself. "Panther Caroso, the woman stealing feline of the Lylat System…" He commented on himself.

Finally finding a chilled bottle of cola, he reached for it, but the gut feeling returned… He picked up a strong scent, and it came from behind him. It wasn't familiar to the smell of the girls but it was strikingly familiar… Before he could pin-point it and guess who it was, he felt the cold end of the barrel behind his head.

"Don't… Move…"

He didn't turn, but he could tell from the Estuary English accent that it was 'her'. "A little too much, don'chu think my dear?"

"Can it Panther…!" She forced him to turn and struck him in the face with a powerful blow. "That was for the past."

The feline felt his jaw, and spat out blood. "A little rough…" He sarcastically commented.

"Do you know how I feel? Do you know how it feels to be tormented!? To lose everything that you ever had!?" She booted the feline in the chest, as he grunted she held her gun at him.

He held his chest as the pain was sharp. "But I loved you…" He claimed softly. "And I know you loved me…" He smirked. "But all the girls love Panther and he has to really show his love for others."

"So that's it huh? You were just using me as a toy!?"

He couldn't do anything but laugh. "To me, every woman was just a toy. You however were a woman I did indeed care about. But you were a soldier, just like us, and expendable. At the end of the day, I couldn't care less if you left or not." He pointed to the two sleeping women. "It's easy to forget about someone, if you put your mind to it. Your leaving may have upset me in the short term but that means I can have all the girls. But I guess the weak minded are the ones who take it personally."

"Shut up…"

"I may have had feelings in the past, but now that I think of it and look at you now, it makes me wonder what I saw in you."

"I said, shut up!"

"Poor sad Krystal, all alone… You left us, and you left 'him'… He'll rot in hell soon however, but at least appreciate that you aren't there to witness it!" A cynical glare shot at Kursed, one that seemed just as evil as Shears. "You're the forgotten broken toy!"

Knowing how it was easy to be forgotten brought her rage beyond her capacity. Without thinking, her fists were battering Caroso, left, right, left right. Her knuckles were bloodied in contrast to Panther's face that was mutilated. He was defenceless, and no matter how much he attempted to hold her back or block her, she just made it useless. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!" She screamed out.

The other two girls awoke and when they saw the trouble, they fled. As the door opened, Frost made his way in. He managed to track down Kursed, but a little late as he turned to see her beating the living daylights out of him. He intervened and held her back with all his might, restraining her. "Oi-oi-oi-oi-oi! Stop that! Kursed!"

She struggled to break free, but his strength was beyond her ability to fight back. Her grunts, flails and shouts were then silenced as she finally calmed down from her rage… A feeling of fear and sadness overwhelmed her as she felt like a child who had been caught by a monster that she couldn't fight. She set her feet down on the ground and stood when Gabriel let go of her. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she cried out aloud.

He hushed her and turned her around to let her cry on his shoulders. He held her against him and patted her back. "Thar-thar lassy, let it all out."

"I'm nothing… I don't deserve anything… I'm useless!" She deemed herself.

The hedgecat helped her calm down as he sat her on the bed. "Wolf won't be slow pleased when he finds out about this…"

"Well it seems you're right…"

"Bloody hell…" The hedgetcat stood and turned to see Wolf pointing a handgun at him. "Y'gonna put away that piece or what?"

He shook his head and kept his aim on the mercenary. "Your colleague just violated one of the rules on this ship, and you're both going to do time in my jail for it. Or do I have to shoot you instead?" He raised an eyebrow.

The mercenary chuckled. "You can't shoot me, you know I'll just take the bullet, go at ya and take ya down like before."

The canine hesitated before withdrawing his aim. He walked to Panther and helped him up, supporting him to the exit of the room.

"Hey…" Frost halted them both… "You don't happen to know anything about Fox and the Venomian army, do you?"

O'Donnell simply shook his head and said nothing. "Where ever the pup is, he's not with us… And we don't work with the Venomian army."

"Sorry for the mess."

O'Donnell nodded and left with Panther.

The hedgecat turned to the emotional vixen. "Well that was bloody brilliant. It could've went better if y'ad warned me about " He sarcastically remarked. "Come on, let's go."

Returning to their ship, Frost set the ship to auto-pilot, on the course to Titania. He took a chilled bottle of whiskey from his fridge and headed to Kursed's room. He knocked on the door, and a few moments after his knock was answered. The vixen had been crying for a while, though not loudly. He handed it to the pretty vixen. "I don't really want to see you in an emotional state. Have a few, and go to sleep. You'll probably feel better in the morning." To add, he gave a small shot glass and smiled, patting her on the shoulder before leaving to his quarters.

Left with a bottle of alcohol in hand, she sat back down on her bed. Kursed set the glass bottle and shot glass on top of the drawer next to her bed, and she removed her shirt, putting it aside along with her combats. Left in just her undergarments, she took Gabriel's advice and started to take shots of whiskey.

Though the drink was smooth, its taste was hard and strong. The first shot sent shivers down her spine as she had not encountered such a powerful alcoholic drink before. Sure she had wine, champagne and beer but that couldn't compare to a true hard whiskey. The next shot however went down more easily.

Gabriel didn't specify how many shots she needed, but she began to think she had over done it when she couldn't even hold the shot glass without her hand shaking. Deciding it was best not to continue, she set the bottle aside and the shot glass with it.

Curling up into a ball, she sighed as her body attempted to relax itself and make way for her much needed sleep…

Her body however didn't make way for sleep, as she tossed and turned in her own bed. It was comfortable, and soft and warm, but it wasn't enough for her… For some reason, she felt like she couldn't sleep at all. Turning to her side, she tried to count sheep in her mind… It didn't work when she managed to reach her 40th sheep with no progress. She then tried listening to her music player, but that didn't do anything neither.

She couldn't think of another way to fall asleep, and her body was drunk, and God knows what could happen if she didn't fall asleep now… Her mind then thought about Fox in the past… There was a time when they both showered together… Even though it was just a memory, her face flushed red. "Oh…"

Kursed really did miss him. All this time she believed she could live without him, but now she was to find him. Maybe she could sort things out…

Or maybe…

Her body was hot. The vixen threw aside the blanket and let her body lie in the open, but it did little to cool her off. Her body began calling to her, as a weird tingling sensation began to coil through her as her thoughts accurately portrayed what happened in that shower… Fox may not have been her first, but definitely was the one who gave her the idea of how love making truly would've felt like…

He caressed every part of her and missed nothing that she wanted to be felt. Her body was covered in hot shower water and it was constantly sprayed by it, keeping her hot even though she already was heated; that's when she realised what her body was doing: it tried to emulate the memory.

As drunk as she was, she couldn't help herself as she let one of her hands slip under her bra and cup one of her breasts. Rubbing upon it and squeezing it brought back very desirable and lustful memories. She pinched her nipple, just like the way it was done before by the vulpine.

'_**Does it feel good?'**_

"Yes my love… It feels so good…" She breathed. She wanted more, needed more. Her second hand slipped down and under the protective fabric of her lace panties. Under all the fabric was the wet mound that hadn't been attended to by another person for years, let alone herself… Kursed never had masturbated before, even as her former self.

Then why did she want to now? She didn't know, but didn't care neither as her index and middle finger made their way in to her. "Unmph!" She cringed as she finally felt the sensation she yearned for. Panther may have had been able to satisfy her needs in the past, but now she yearned for 'him'… "Fox…" She breathed as her fingers pulled themselves out and pushed themselves back in to her delicate and sensitive flower.

Her breast cupping hand switched its job and made their way down, stopped just under the fabric of her panties; now both her hands were wet.

Kursed didn't feel like she was truly in control, but her body yearned for the powerful pleasure she had neglected to please. It bounced back hard, and she couldn't suppress it anymore. "Fox…" She wanted him to be next to her, helping her to the sensational release. She couldn't remember how it felt to have an orgasm, but she wanted to experience it again.

Her heart was racing fast, so fast it felt as though she couldn't keep up with it. It was comparable to the speeds of an arwing, and that was saying something since arwings are pretty fast. If it kept going this fast, she'll die of pleasure. Maybe it didn't seem so bad but f anyone had found out about it, she couldn't imagine how it would sound on the news.

Her second hand managed to find the much more sensitive bud, and without hesitation she rubbed against it for pure ecstasy. Her body jolted and stiffened as waves of un-monitored feelings surged through her body without a specific path. It forced her to continue, keep going at herself.

"Fox!" She cried out. Fox McCloud was the only person she could think of right now, he was the only one she wanted. Wherever he may be, she hoped to find him and let him know how much she missed him. "Nrgh!" She gritted her teeth.

'_**Don't be afraid my love…" **_Fox's soft voice whispered. Her mind was playing

"Not…!"

'_**Just release…' **_It was as if he was helping her… Like before…

"Yet…!" Trying to suppress her climax for a little longer, she continued to vigorously rub and finger herself simultaneously. Her heart was pounding, continuing to punch her from the inside out. Her body became breathless and she was drenched in the sweat she produced from her moment of heat.

Trying to keep up with her heart, she panted as fast as she could and took in as much oxygen in order to keep her body going. The constant breathing and pleasures put together mad her tongue stick out and her drool as she could barely control herself any longer.

'_**Just release my love…'**_

"FOX!" She cried out loudly as she finally felt the release of her orgasm. The pleasure that was previously in her body had escalated to something more and bounced around her body beyond control and suppression. Her hands were drenched in her climax… She stiffened and screamed loud as finally she had given what her body had wanted this night: Pleasure…

Her body was void of energy, and after a few moments, she fell asleep, though still feeling the faint feeling of her orgasm in her body. She fell asleep however, smiling… "Fox…"

'_**Rest my dear… I love you…" **_It was as if he was really here next to her.


	4. Chapter 4: Revelations and Revolutions

Waking up to the sudden alarm of her digital clock, Kursed gasped a breath of life from her dream. Looking around, she managed to compose herself and had a look at the clock. It read '6:32'. It was quite early, but she had to get up if she wanted to prepare herself for the next task at hand.

But what happened last night was phenomenal, amazing… Crazy… That last adjective was the perfect description of the scene last night and herself. She was losing her mind, and she didn't even think that it would've happened. Her mind had been able to conjure up a ghostly figure of her former lover, and she was in heat… He was there to please her… There to make sure she felt loved…

Her climax to the thought of Fox being next to her was far more intense than she had ever imagined. It was powerful, impossible! Her past orgasms could not have compared to what she had felt last night. Her whole body was engulfed in pleasure that had no control, had no remorse for the vixen. It made her heart race against time itself; it filled her mind with a volley of exploding colours that blinded her.

Interestingly enough, it must've helped her to survive the morning, as her head didn't ache as a side-effect to the stupid amounts of alcohol she had consumed from last night. Even drunk sex was no different to her past sexual moments with Panther…

She wondered however whether Fox would really take her back, if he was alright… Her mind had finally realised that she loved him… She loved him…

All these years that she said that she would forget about that red fox was a lie, a pre-broken promise she made to keep herself sane, but it never made her happy knowing that the only person that truly loved her more than anyone else was given up for personal reasons. Of course, he was meant to be the man and make her feel more comfortable and to help her shrug off the insults, but she betrayed him for the sake of Star Wolf, and Panther… If she could only change the past, she wouldn't have broke his heart…

She was the beginning of an end… The end to Fox's sanity, and now karma had bounced back and she is losing hers… Or is she…?

Venom, Secret Underground Laboratory

It had been a few hours since the successful revival of Andross, and the Venomian army royalists have celebrated. Deep in this laboratory however, they continue to do Andross' direct bidding as he ordered them to do new experiments, to the two prisoners that he wanted in the first place.

The ape entered, and as he did, the scientists greeted him with terms such as 'Your Majesty' and 'Lord'. They were glad that he had returned, and he was the key to their new source of power.

The revival process that had brought back the evil Emperor required the Krazoa spirits and their absorbing, but there was a catch: the Krazoa spirits can always tell whether they are being absorbed by a pure or an evil heart, and if it is evil and the Krazoa spirit is to be completely absorbed, they will turn the said person into a Demon rather than an Angel. However, this was Andross' plan all along, because he can easily endure the exile as he had already been exiled by the late General Pepper from Corneria. It was no problem, since he lusts for power, and his belief that demonic power can be the key to unlocking it seemed to be believable to even the scientist…

He had returned, hungrier than ever, and at the same time, madder than ever.

Andross theorised that he can turn the Venomian soldiers into Earthbound demons by the 'Demonic gene' within him. So far, the two early test subjects have proven themselves, although unconventionally. To take precautions, the ape had conjured a magic spell on the chains that hold the two prisoners to make sure they do not get out. He can thank his demonic blood for that.

He had the men in white coats work on the prisoners: Dash, the former Emperor prior to his revival and his grand-son, whilst the other was a nobody. Dash clearly had been in testing first. The scientists studied for specific enhancements, and the results from both of the subjects were similar: increased strength and speed to inhuman levels, reaction time has been sharpened, the subjects both have demonic magic aura surrounding and protruding from them, and both showed increase aggressiveness.

The Emperor looked towards the head scientist, a lynx who wore spectacles and had a grey ponytail. He grinned to his master as he held a notepad with the results of last night's tests. "Here you are Lord Andross. I'm sure you'll like the results." He handed the notepad to his master.

The ape had a grin slapped upon his face as he took note of the information he was given. "Excellent." He commented.

"Our second subject had converted fast as well. It was simply astonishing, how he was one minute a 'mortal' and then in the next, he turned…" He smiled impishly. "We are more than a few steps closer to victory.

Andross smiled back at the lynx and returned the notepad. "Let me see him." He demanded.

Not wanting to disappoint his powerful master, he lead him to the entrance of the detention cell hallway, where many are held captive and few are tested on. Many of the prisoners that they passed by are of Cornerian army personnel, primarily low ranking grunts. They all were left to rot in their cells, begging for food, water and their release. In his own mind, the lynx couldn't care less if any of them died here, as he only cares to serve his master. After passing through the many cells, he had lead Andross to the end of the chamber, where there were high level security testing facilities. It hadn't been used in a while, but it felt refreshing that his team and himself were able to once again use it for the sake of experimentation. The results may become grotesque and gruesome, but for Andross, this scientist would do anything to please the efforts of his master and the Venomian army in slaying what he dubbed 'the Cornerian swine'.

They entered the room, and the 'white coats' who worked on the computers to garnish continuous results and monitor the actions of the test subjects. From the security camera monitors, it shown that both of them were held in chains and neither of them attempted any form of struggle.

The ape decided to enter the second high security cell to have a proper look at this particular subject that had the interesting results. The lynx followed and gestured his hand to signal that the door behind them was to be closed and locked and that no one would intervene.

The ape grinned deviously as he eyed his target, examining him by looking up and down on him. "Finally… I can have my revenge on you, Fox McCloud!"

The vulpine, hearing his name, raised his head and opened his eyes. His vision returned from the pitch black darkness, and he saw his worst enemy, alive and well to this day. Whilst before, he would've cried out his name and attempted to put his foe down, he could not do anything to the evil dictator of the Venomian army. His mouth just stayed shut, and his limbs were frozen in place as he knew that the chains that held him in place were impossible to break…

"The great and famous leader of the second generation of Star Fox… Like your father, you are nothing! A nobody! A failure!" Andross did not receive a response, and so continued to berate the poor fella: "What can you do now? Nothing… Now you will feel the exile and torment that your Cornerian denizens banished me to! But not only shall Corneria exile you, but the Lylat System itself!"

The vulpine knew what ran through his veins… He overheard the scientists talking about 'demonic blood' and other mythical things… McCloud had an encounter with Krazoa spirits in the past, and at this point, he was ready to believe anything. The men in white coats had changed him, and the signs were the fact he was able to knock out several guards who attempted to tame him with just a single strike.

As much as he wanted to try and break free from his chains and kill Andross, he was void of energy and unable to do much against the chains that held him.

"I wonder how proud your father would be if he could see you now…"

What can he do? He can't do anything to stop his arch nemesis now… His father always said to never give up and trust his instincts, but he had given up a long time ago… He had no reason to continue fighting; he had no purpose in life. His instincts were as empty as himself, and they led him to nowhere. There was a time where it had helped him survive the most dangerous of situations, but now it was over… Fox McCloud had been defeated, just like his father.

He had a lover, he had a future, he had everything… And now… Nothing.

The ape turned and scoffed and prompt the lynx to leave with him. "You may rot in this cell, and if you don't live, then rot… In hell!" He left, cackling menacingly.

Left alone again in the darkness of this forsaken cell, he had time to lament on his past… And had the thought that he wasn't able to be the perfect Captain, let alone a good friend. What good did McCloud proved to be? He was a fighter, but nothing more… For some time he use to think that he was a great friend, and a satisfying lover… Then one swift decision began its undoing. His self-unseeing...

The chains were fitting in his torment, as not only was he physically trapped and held together, but in his mind it was stuck within the depths of darkness.

What really hit him hard was the fact he couldn't please his lover… The fact he made the worst choice in his life, and it led to her to fall in love with Panther Caroso, who seemed to be a much better lover than he could ever be since Krystal made love to him first. He didn't care that she betrayed him during the Anglar Blitz, he deserved it for breaking her heart, and so she returned the favour and a little more. It had shattered his will to little bits of glass, and to fix it would be like trying to sort a one-thousand piece puzzle without the guide to help him; that would be impossible.

She was his light, and his subsequent ruin… Tears began to run down his cheek… He wondered if demons could cry, because if they didn't, he'd be the first. Sighing a breath of composure, he decided to apologise to his former friends, and his former lover.

"Peppy… I'm sorry… You were the only father figure I had to look up to when my real father died. You gave me advice, but I was stubborn, and I often never listened to you. The worst part is when I broke contact with you completely, and I feel sour for it… Maybe I'd be better off under your advice again, and maybe I wouldn't be here. We had a good run ol' timer, but I guess that it won't just be my father who will be disappointed." He sighed before continuing on. "Thank you Peppy however, for being the only person who was able to keep me sane."

"Falco… My rival… My best friend… You were an amazing person, and I couldn't rely on anyone better to keep me alive in the worst of situations. Whenever I get into a tough dogfight, you'll fly in and pull me out of the fire so I won't get burned badly. We had our rough times, but if I think about it, most of the time it was me who caused the fight… It was me who broke our friendship apart." Pausing for a moment, he thought for more to say. He remembered something about Falco and Katt… "You may not be able to hear me, but you live your life… I'm kind of envious that you have something I don't, but still… I wish you the best."

"Slippy. Who could fix and maintain a ship better than you? I guess no one else that I know, but you were a good friend of mine that I trusted very much. I'm sorry I berated you for all those times before, but I can't change the past but I wish I could." He chuckled to himself. "You got in trouble a lot of times, but that was the fun part. I'm gonna miss you buddy…"

Finally reaching the most important person in his life, the vixen that drove him crazy with passion… He may not be able to have her now, or ever… But he wanted to make sure his apology had been at least said. "Krystal… I don't deserve you, and I was never the perfect person. I thought that your safety was important, but I didn't take any consideration in to your thoughts… Krystal… I love you."

Awaking from a nightmare, Kursed drew her pistol and fired at the first figure she saw… She had loaded lead into Gabriel! Realising this, she threw the handgun away and rushed herself to aid him. "I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, but was held back instead.

The hedgecat sighed as he examined his wounds which healed quickly, but his shirt didn't repair itself. "S'aight. Ya just tore the shirt… Must've had a bad dream eh?" He presumed as he noticed the glistening sweat on the bounty hunter's neck and face.

She blinked and took a seat on her bed, taking note at how the wounds just healed like it was only a small cut he had a few weeks ago, fast forward to the healing process. "That's amazing…" Regardless, she wondered why the hedgecat would come to her room. "Why are you in my room?"

"I heard you screaming and I came in wondering what the bloody hell was up. Luckily it was a simple nightmare." He claimed. The mercenary took off his trench coat and examined the bullet holes. "Easily fixable… But I'll do that later."

Kursed put on a blue shirt and blue camo-combats and returned her gaze to the mercenary who stood alive from the multiple blasts of gunfire she had given him. It made her curious to how Angels and Demons actually work. "So… Want to clue me in?"

The mercenary folded the coat over his arms and nodded. "Come on then. I'll show you the secrets."

They walked through the hallways and deep into the ship. This was the farthest that Kursed had explored of the ship, since she never really felt like looking around for anything of interest, other than the living room, the kitchen and her own room. After a couple of minutes passing hallways and through large doorways, they had reached a large door that had a sign on it. '**_LABORATORY, CAUTION'_**

The mercenary entered a code but did not attempt to cover his hand from the bounty hunter, which implied his trust in her. "In this laboratory, lies the research that I've been continuing from the late crew members." Once the doors opened, he let the vixen through first and followed in after.

"So what were you guys researching about?"

"How the physical body of an Angel and a Demon works…"

The laboratory was spacious, and had tons of equipment of different types. Most of the equipment in this laboratory were related to biological studies, such as microscopes to examine blood and a sterilizing chamber for used equipment like syringes and injectors among other equipment. There was a large table at the heart of it, with stacked documents of the sort.

The mercenary obtained a sterilized syringe and pricked himself on the arm before extracting a sample of his blood. He didn't even slap his arms a couple of times nor did he prepare himself for it, but he didn't flinch nor grunt… "Pass me a Petri dish would ya lassie?"

Kursed found a sterilised Petri dish and handed it over to the hedgecat who took it and thanked her with a silent nod. She watched as he emptied the full syringe into the Petri dish before closing it and offering it to the vixen. "Why would I need your blood? I'm not a vampire." She chuckled, finding it ironic that vampires actually do exist.

"Have a look at it under the scope." He said, before putting the used syringe in the sterilising chamber.

The vixen put the Petri dish under the microscope and looked into it, zooming as close as the scope can go. Looking at the sample of blood, she saw a bright virus looking cell attached to each and every blood cell in the sample. "What's that?" She asked. Turning to Magilligan, she was handed over a document with the label 'ANGEL GENE'.

"What you saw on my blood, was known as the Angel Gene, at least that's what we nickname it." He explained. He pulled a chair from the table and took a seat and allowed Kursed to read the document he had given her.

The document had detailed information about the so-called 'Angel gene'. It is structured like a virus but it glows, often reports had mentioned it made blood glow in darker areas. "Interesting… Must've taken long to get the information."

Magilligan nodded. "The cells are quite unique in themselves, though they share a lot of similarities with the 'Demon gene' but we'll get to that later." Taking a document from the table, he had a look at the old research. "The 'Angel gene' attaches itself to the blood and begins multiply within the blood stream, similar to a virus cell." He explained.

"A virus cell usually destroys the blood in the process, isn't that usually bad? Like an aneurism or something?"

Magilligan shook his head. "Nah. The mature cell copies some of the blood to itself before the original cell is destroyed, and once the blood cell is destroyed, multiple immature genes with a cloned blood cell are produced, thus, preventing any reduction of vitality."

"Hmm… Sounds a little different." Kursed commented. "So that's how they work huh? Anything more that I need to know?"

"Well, the genes then become dormant once the host's entire blood supply has been converted and they also evolve the host's body by creating the Angel wings. They also improve the host's body such as increasing strength by condensing the muscles, improving reaction time, speed, reducing the amount of lactic acid produced during exercise, and it continues to do regenerate cells that can deteriorate and age."

"Really? You mean you can live for a long time?"

Frost shook his head. "Not just a long time, but for as long as you are alive. The cells emit some sort of energy; we consider it to be magic energy."

"But how does it heal wounds?"

"Much like the way it develops, except a little differently." Taking another document from the table, he had a look at its contents before putting it back. "The genes react to injuries by multiplying even more. The genes have been proven to be as effective as stem cells, being able to heal wounds of all kinds within short time…"

"That would mean it'd be impossible to kill you…" Kursed commented.

"Not exactly."

The vixen raised an eyebrow and found herself wondering at how it can't be impossible to kill something that can heal so fast. It seemed fairly familiar…

"The body requires a certain amount of blood in order to function. In the case of an Angel or Demon, the pure physical way to kill one in theory is to reduce them to immature cells. The mature cells are responsible for the healing and other functions, but immature gene cells cannot do this, as they are instructed to heal wounds, not the instructor. It takes a whole day for immature cells to become mature cells."

The vixen registered all this information, and it made sense how Frost was able to heal so fast in such short time, as long as he doesn't take too many severe wounds in a single day.

"But depending on the rank of a Demon or Angel, it may be easier to kill one than you think. Higher level Demons or Angels can heal faster and survive fatal wounds, but lower ranks have such slow healing speeds that they have to force their cells to heal, and during combat they cannot focus on anything else. The healing doesn't take place and they can simply be killed like a normal person, though with much higher endurance."

"What if the head is decapitated or if one loses limbs or stuff like that?"

Looking back at his fights with high level Demons, he remembers how it takes effort in killing one. "It's hard to explain that one…"

Though she finally caught out the hedgecat, she wasn't really trying to achieve anything but still smiled. "Okay, so that's how it works huh? But what about Demons? You mentioned that their cells work differently."

"Well, not really differently. I said they're similar, but they're not the same."

"Why's that?"

The hedgecat showed a few pictures from a document labelled 'DEMON GENE'. Some of the pictures that he produced from the document were grotesque, as it showed men with abnormalities in their bodies, such as bones protruding from their body when they shouldn't be. "The Demon cells are similar in structure and how they work, but are more volatile."

"I see."

"Both types of cells are able to change the host's DNA in order to be compatible, but the Demonic gene has certain limitations and for some reason, sometimes isn't able to convert the host's DNA and often creates creatures of certain types. They're some kind of demons that have a completely different structure all together, but can disguise themselves as a mortal. Not all demons follow the Demon gene structuring we're familiar with, but all Angels follow the Angel gene structure when in physical form."

The vixen took note of the fact and nodded to acknowledge. "So that's the Physical part of a Demon and Angel, but I believe that it's nothing to do with the Spirit and magic at the most. The spirit and the body are two different things." Kursed lamented.

Frost shrugged. "Angel arms and Demon arms are the cause of most deaths from both sides."

"I rather not have an explanation of that. It'll take much longer since you can never explain about things like a spirit when its far too mysterious."

"It's the spirit that usually is able to tell the truth…" Gabriel commented before standing from his chair. "We'll be arriving at Titania soon, so let's gear up. There was a distress signal that I received."

"A distress signal? Wouldn't it be sent to specifically registered Cornerian fleet ships?"

"It was sent un-specifically… They're desperate."

"How desperate?"

Gabriel turned to Kursed with a serious look. "They're dwindling in supplies… Food, weapons and ammo."

The both of them looked at their watches, but then realised that it was 8:55AM… "We're less then an hour before we arrive at Titania."

The both of them rushed to the armoury and checked for as much equipment as they needed, but the most they had was small arms, and explosive and destructive weapons were at the minimal. There were explosive charges and batteries, but were useless on their own.

"We don't have enough proper explosive weapons! We can't just expect to help them with only guns."

Gabriel remembered that he had a large crate of Composition B that he bought from a black market trader in Macbeth. Then he saw the many bottles stacked in a recycling crate that he meant to dispose of on the next planetary landing. He then saw fuel containers full of Kaguerine, a fuel type used in prototype Arwing G-250 models.

Kaguerine was an effective fuel type that provided 45% more energy than standard fuel types, and surprisingly it was very common to find out of the minerals in Corneria. However, they were dropped from the production versions of the G-250, as Kaguerine had a very bad habit of being far more flammable than standard fuel types. That being said, many of the prototypes had a 69% higher chance of being completely destroyed if severely hit.

Kaguerine had been since converted from an Arwing fuel type to a more effective backup generator fuel. The new G-250 models instead use the more recent fuel type, Baluerine which is similar to Kaguerine but is less flammable, and slightly less common.

"We can make improvised explosives… Ever heard of a sticky bomb and a Molotov cocktail?"

"I heard of a Molotov, never a Sticky bomb."

The hedgecat opened the box filled with Composition B and then he rushed out with a small empty box towards the Armoury to obtain large socks from the rooms. He had never gotten rid of the clothes that his former crew members use to wear, but mostly because he had a larger variety of clothes to wear because of the fact. All of the crew members had standard Cornerian military issue socks that were fairly large, they were able to fit a lot into them if stretched out. He filled the box with many of these socks, and then to his room, he dropped all his shirts into the box that he couldn't wear. He had a bulkier figure than what he was a few years ago.

Returning with the clothes, he dropped it and pointed to the box of Composition B. "A sticky bomb requires the socks to be filled with Comp' B, filled it up with as much as you can. Tie up the end and staple a simple fuse on to it." He opened another crate full of 'Enhancer boxes'.

Enhancer boxes were special compositions of extremely volatile minerals, and often are added to the newer, smaller variants of the Cornerian military grenades, since the older grenades were far too bulky to carry many. These were proven to increase the explosions of a grenade that is five times smaller fivefold.

"Drop a box of Enhancer into the sticky bombs."

"Looks like we'll be surrendering our socks but not our lives." She commented." You do Molotovs."

"Right."

"Can you tell me why we're panicking and setting up weapons!?"

The hedgecat started filling the empty glass bottles with the fuel and responded: "I don't want to disappoint the cunts!" Ripping one of his old shirts, he stuffed it down the neck of the glass bottle and using a cork to close the lid.

"Great, now I'm helping the Cornerian's." An ironic fate that she'll be helping the Cornerian military when it was Corneria who had shunned her for her actions during the Anglar Blitz… Should she really stay angry at the citizens who never understood her actions when they've never done things they shouldn't have amidst a war?

Captain Caparzo was explaining the current situation to the Lieutenant who was in charge of the operation. "We're pulling every over-watch squad out of the battlefield, the fucking Venomians took out the Hamill scouts, and we're down to 5% of our ammunition reserves." She explained. Sighing, Caparzo continued on with the disheartening news. "Before they were shot down, the last thing piece of information they've sent us was that they saw multiple Venomian soldiers and armour preparing for a direct strike. We don't have enough weapons and ammunition to fight back. They strike again, we're not going survive."

The Lieutenant sighed, rubbing his forehead in disbelief as he faces impossible odds. "The men are already at their peak in morale, and what's worse than the fact that they're too tired to fight at all…"

"We've sent the distress signal, but we don't know if any ships at all heard it… We need a miracle sir, because we can't fight a losing battle…" She didn't receive any immediate response, so she called out to him: "Lieutenant Falco!"

Falco shook some sense into his head and turned his gaze to Caparzo. He didn't know what to do at the most. He had been in situations where the odds were against him, but not impossible… Remembering the time he had been in Star Fox, he had trained himself to fight to the very end.

After a moment of silence from him and Caparzo, it was broken when another soldier rushed in. "Sir, we have an unidentified Primary ship entering the atmosphere!"

The pheasant turned to the soldier with widened eyes. "Where is it headed?"

"Just outside the base sir! That's what we've calculated!"

With little options on the situation, he had some of the soldiers to arm up with the little weaponry they had, and prepare for possible attack. He drew his trusty blaster handgun, and looked up into the sky to see the said ship entering the atmosphere at great speed.

The ship crash landed just outside the back of the base, pretty much how the soldier had previously predicted. The prepared men rushed towards the main cargo door which faced their base, readying their arms for their possible foe.

Falco noticed that his hand started to shake… Ever since 'that day', his hand began to shake whenever there was something going to happen, or whenever he felt like he was nervous or overwhelmed.

The cargo doors opened, and like everyone else, Lombardi had his weapon at the ready. He didn't know how many he'd be facing, nor how well armed they were. "Prepare to fire!"

When the cargo doors were completely open, two figures, one wearing a black trench coat and black combats and boots, whilst the other with blue fur and strikingly familiar hair… Having a closer look at the two, he then realised that the black trench coated figure was non-other than… "Gabriel?"

"Y'aight laddie?"

Gesturing to order his men to lower their guard, Falco holstered his pistol. "What the hell are you doin' here Gabe?"

"Gabe?" The blue furred vixen asked.

The hedgecat chuckled. "He's a good friend. We met in a Cornerian academy last year."

"Good friend?" The pheasant chuckled to the idea. "That's sort of an understatement you fuckin' son of a bitch." He offered his hand to Gabriel.

"Ah shuddup ya right bastard." He took his friend's hand and accepted the shake. Though they both technically insulted each other, it was merely a term of endearment. "So I got the distress call, and it happened to be that we were coming here in the first place. By the way, this is Kursed."

The blue vixen who wore blue camo-gear seemed familiar to a vixen he knew before, but couldn't accurately picture who she reminded him of. The Lieutenant felt his hand relax. "Thank God. Do you have weapons? Explosives? Homing Launchers of the sort?" He asked, hoping they'd be supplied.

"Nope." He dryly said. "But we do have a lot of pre-made improvised explosives."

Falco was interested. "What kind?"

The mercenary folded his arms. "We have a couple dozen of Molotovs, and quite a few sticky bombs filled with Comp' B and an enhancer brick, if you can spare some axle grease."

Lombardi nodded in response. "We have quite a lot. I'm guessing that you are pretty armed in the small arms department. But what about food?" The pheasant asked.

"I've got lots of supplies to spare. Help us to carry them out."

The Cornerian Lieutenant ordered a couple of his men to follow the hedgecat in to the ship.

After gathering all of the said supplies, including small arms, the hedgecat and the soldiers moved carried them towards the base. "You want to fill me in on how bad you've been shat on by the Venomian royals?"

Taking a box from one of the soldiers, he carried it in following behind Frost. "Well, from what the scouts had reported, they're planning a full head on attack on this base. Had you not have come, we would've had our damn asses kicked hard." Setting down the box, he ordered the soldiers who then set theirs to get axle grease from the armoury. He took a seat and sighed.

"Well, we were technically here to recruit you, but I don't want to leave a base defenceless… Or with an enemy to fight." The mercenary pulled his sleeves up and checked on his weapon; it was unloaded and still locked on safety so that there wouldn't be any accidents.

The tigress entered with her box and left it besides the others. "We have enough small arms to cover everyone here, ammunition and food too. We stand a fighting chance… But what happens if we lose the base?" Caparzo explained, taking one of the weapons. "I remember this from the training procedures. Ballistics right?"

"Right." Falco agreed.

The mercenary had a look at the map, noticing that it was a bridge that would lead them across to the respectful bases of both parties. "Hmm… What was the report on the attack?"

Caparzo put back the weapon and attended to the question. "Scouts say that they were going to attack with Venomian Landmasters. We shot down all their dogfighters a few days ago but that cost us a lot of supplies."

Familiar with the bulky design of the Venomian Landmaster, Gabriel had noted in the past that they couldn't take flight like the Cornerian Landmaster, but to compensate, it had tougher armour which meant superior punishment intake. It had a particular weakness however which is located under the tank itself. The fuel placement was set under the tank since the Venomian Royalists believe that their Landmaster's would take more punishment from Arwings and enemies from afar, but never interpreted that it wound come under direct attack from infantry.

Putting the bridge on the hologram, he pointed at the passageway under the main bridge. "What's this for?"

"Civilian walk way. The main road on the bridge doesn't have a side-walk."

"We can use it to flank them. We're going to need to keep the bridge up, but it doesn't mean we can't wreck havoc on the shiete heads." Taking out his usual lighter and cigarette box, he noticed that he had only one left. "Anyone smoke?"

Kursed entered the room with the last crate of supplies. "No one here smokes but you and Falco." She responded.

Though the guess that he did smoke was correct, it was a little outdated… "I promised Katt I wouldn't smoke." Lombardi admitted.

The vixen's eyes widened in surprise when Falco mentioned Katt's name, and the fact he had made a promise to her at all was even more surprising. In the past, whenever the others teased the poor pheasant for not taking the chance with Katt, he'd deny that he had any feelings for the girl… Time seemed to have changed things.

"How is the kitty anyways?"

The Lieutenant took hold of one of the provided rifles and examined it, but didn't ignore the question. "Last I heard from her, she was fine… It's been a couple of weeks since I left her in Corneria, but I'm still wondering…"

"Wondering what?" Gabriel urged.

He didn't want to say it in front of others… "As long as you two don't say anything about it."

Caparzo closed up an imaginary zipper on her mouth and said nothing, and planned to say nothing. She wanted to be as trustworthy as she can.

Kursed also agreed to be silent on the secret.

"We decided to… Rid the condoms and the pills…"

The two females were astonished, whilst Gabriel can only clap slowly but not mockingly. "Well now, there's an achievement. If you do have a lil' one, I'll assure you that having kids is a life changer." He explained.

The bounty hunter vixen raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming that you have kids?"

"One." He specified. "She'll be 19 by the end of next month. Had the young'un when I was 18."

"Wait… That would make you… 38?" She thought that it must be the Angel gene that is keeping him looking fit and young. He was already reaching middle age, for a mortal at least. Then again, wouldn't he be impossible to stop by physical means if the Venomian army were to go up against him?

"So you said that you saw demons?"

Nevermind…

It must be a very bad secret to keep should Falco even know about the existence of the two of the most powerful preternatural species in the universe.

Falco nodded whilst Caparzo agreed. "My men have reported that they have seen these weird looking creatures, kind of like puppets on a string except nothing controls them…" He explained. "My men however aren't really familiar with demons, only a select number of us know about it thanks to Peppy. The ol' timer is quite useful."

"We just present them to the men as 'experiments' of the Venomian royalists." Caparzo added.

The description was very simple to Gabriel. "Low level puppets. On their own, they're not much to worry about but in large groups, it can get a little messy…" The puppet demons are merely demonic spirits taking the form of a puppet, and are armed with blades and sometimes primitive firearms which become demonically charged. The worse part of a puppet is the fact that they can actually take more punishment than that of mortals, since they are merely wooden puppets physically, but they have limits. "But I'm assuming there were more to see?"

Lombardi nodded in response. Knowing that his men were fighting not only Venomian Royalists, but demons as well it worried him a little. Something was really wrong, but he was glad that an Angel was there to help him.

There was a moment of silence as they examined each and every weapon that they had gathered from the boxes. Feeling that the silence had become awkward, Kursed decided to break the silence. "So… This… Katt girl, how did it come to be?"

The pheasant felt his face flush red, but he was far to overwhelmed to respond, his now shaking hand was a perfect sign of it. Both Gabriel and Caparzo know of this secret, since Gabriel was the one who asked about it in the past while the Captain had been under Falco's wing for a while, she knows a lot about him; she was like the kind of little sister who can find a way to blackmail you whenever you're not looking, but then again reliable.

"Come on Fal, don't be shy." The hedgecat urged.

The pheasant only folded his arms and stayed silent, not wanting to go into details about his past with anyone else. His past was his and Katt's business, and no one else's. Lombardi had always been the silent type of person, and never opened his beak on the subject on Monroe, the lovely kitty he had scored. Thinking about it now, he wondered: how it was even possible that he managed to get her in the first place? He'd been denying any feelings towards her and was very open about what he said, but then it just happened.

It all dates back to a few years ago, when McCloud had announced the official disbanding of the Star Fox crew.

"Ya have ta get over it." Gabriel, by Falco's side with a bottle of whiskey in hand was there to help comfort the grief stricken blue pheasant.

On to his next shot of whiskey, he couldn't care less if he was being a little public about his sadness, he couldn't stop himself since his closest friend had shunned him. Without so much as job or a place to stay, Falco was screwed. The bright side: his friend Gabriel was around to be of moral support.

They were in a space pub known as 'Moe's Eagle Cock'. It had cheap prices, for good quality booze and well decorated furniture and colour scheme. The cheap price had attracted many passer-bys and because alcohol exporting is so cheap, one may understand how many would come to a cheap price pub and the profits would keep coming. This was one Fox and Falco's favourite drinking place, but Fox had found his own way to get drunk and in the process, feel sorry for himself. Coincidentally, he now is drinking his sorrows.

"Why don't you apply for the Cornerian Military? They need smart arses like you."

"Ha. Whatever."

After a few moments of drinking, another customer entered.

"Oi-oi. There's a right good burd right thar. Maybe some pussy will cheer you up." The hedgecat patted on Falco's back and turned him to the pink female cat.

When Falco saw the girl his eyes widened in recognition. "Shit!" He blurted, turning around and keeping his face away from her.

Gabriel asked curiously: "Someone you know?"

"Yes, that's Katt Monroe. I know her…"

"Romantic fling?"

Falco shook his head. "I swear, we'll never get to tha-"

"Oi lassie! Pink one who just came in!" Calling to get the girl's attention, he waved his arm in the air. He ignored the pheasant's plea to quiet himself, and even when he begged he just shoved them aside.

Once the feline closed in, her eyes had widened in recognition to seeing Falco. "Huh? Falco, I didn't know you'd be here."

"Yeah…" He dryly replied.

The hedgecat shook his head before slapping the pheasant around the back of his head. "Look at the gal…" He turned to Monroe. "I'm Gabriel Frost Magilligan, call me either one."

"Okay… Gabriel." She smiled warmly at her new acquaintance but turned to Falco who was reluctant to look her in the eye. "It's… Good to see you again." She said, nervously.

The pheasant noticed that same look she had some time ago before Sauria and during the incident in Titania. It was an affectionate and warm smile, but with a hint of nervousness. He didn't offer much but a cold stare, and turned away again.

"Is something wrong?"

"Poor bastirt lost his job, Fox disbanded the team."

Feeling sympathetic for the poor pheasant, she understood how he was quite… Closed. But then again, he was very reserved throughout his whole life, much to her dismay. She really did like Lombardi for his toughness and smart demeanour but it sometimes made it hard to talk to him and really get to know him.

She didn't want to admit the truth however she had feelings for him. It had been growing for quite some time since their last encounter during the incident in Titania. They had met again during the Anglar Blitz, and she really wanted to tell him about her feelings, but she didn't know how he'd react, and whether it'd be worth telling.

Katt thought that Falco was the sort who preferred to be a loner, though with a few friends at hand, he prefers to care more about himself than others in General. But she can't tell whether her assumptions were true or not, but every time she tried to ask him about it, he says very little or nothing at all.

"Look, you really gonna be daft and stand thar without so much as a drink?"

Gabriel had interrupted her train of thought, but for the better at the very least. She nodded and took a seat next to Falco, but not trying to get his attention in the process.

"What d'ye drink?" Magilligan asked, offering to pay for her drink as well.

"No really I'm f-"

Falco stopped her by raising his hand to silence her. "I insist…" The pheasant handed the hedgecat some money to cover the charges. "She prefers Long Island Ice Tea…" He stated, remembering that it was indeed her favourite drink of comfort.

"Such a sly bastirt, tryin' to get rid of me to get some 'pussy'!" Gabriel immaturely said whilst walking off.

Falco however wasn't offended but did blush and threatened playfully to throw the glass bottle of whiskey at the mercenary. "Just get the drinks you son-of-a-cocksucker." He insulted jokingly.

"I think she was. She was with a man after all." Gabriel responded before reaching the counter to buy more drinks.

As the mix-bred busied himself, the jobless Lombardi turned his head away as he flushed red, it turned him purple when contrasting with the blue of his feathers. "Sorry…" He apologised, hoping that the joke didn't offend her by any means.

Monroe just sat in her seat, frozen by the statement given by Frost to Lombardi. It was a little surreal just seeing a different side to Lombardi, and moreover the fact he turned red. She had never seen the pheasant so much as see him embarrassed by a small sexual joke, or maybe things had changed since he lost his job? She doubted that he'd have any interest in her anyways, and it was just a joke.

"So… How is the crew back home?" Lombardi asked, though still looking away.

Monroe looked at Falco, who tried to play it cool. It had become her assumption that since he had lost his job with Star Fox, he had lost his tough demeanour with it. She noticed how his hand shook, and it was a little disconcerting; despite that, she knew she had to respond to the question at hand. "Uhm, they're fine. They're quite busy with stuff so I decided to have a little fly around the Lylat System."

"Looking for a cheap thrill?" Falco asked.

Monroe shrugged, as she wasn't sure of the answer herself; maybe she did, maybe she didn't. The context of 'cheap thrill' was quite vague in itself however, so her answer was appropriate and just as unspecific.

But the thought stayed in her mind, for a prolonged period of time it seems, as the two silenced themselves once again and because of that she couldn't think of anything but what a cheap thrill might've been… The first and possibly only thought that could come to mind was… "Sex…"

Falco almost choked on his drink and made himself look a fool, but managed to sort himself out. Recovering from what happened, he turned to Monroe, with a wide gaze of surprise, in which was shot back at him by her. The surprised look from the both of them turned… Sweet… Lustful…

Lombardi never really had much sex, though he has had it before. Whilst others would say it provided a great feelings, he never knew what was the big deal about it… Then again, maybe it's been so long that he had the lust for it; he just thought it was a one off things that doesn't need to be experienced again and again. The thought struck him, and he realised how much he actually desired it right now, but not with anyone but… Katt Monroe.

He did like her, and that's the only thing he can be honest about her. Maybe his body was far too intoxicated but she seemed like she wanted him too… It was a strange feeling down in his gut…

"I'll… I'll be right back. I-I n-need something from my ship…" The pink furred cat stood and abruptly left.

Just as she did, Gabriel had returned with her Ice Tea and a bottle of warm Sake. "What the, you say something wrong again? Such a twat…" He mocked.

"Gabriel…" Falco said with almost panic like tone. "I-I-I feel… A little weird…"

"How weird?"

"It's like there's some shit churning in my belly, and I can't do anything about it but I like it so much."

"Ah…" Magilligan said with his face turning into a grin. "Did you look at the braw burd?"

"She looked at me too! I swear, Gabriel I don't know what to do, she said she's going to her ship!" Falco explained.

"Don't be nervous…" He said calmly. "Now… You're going to go to the dock… Get into that ship… And fock her brains out…"

The pheasant shook his head at the suggestion. "I'm n-"

"Falco! Listen to me… When have I ever done you wrong?" He questioned.

When has Gabriel ever done him any wrong? Pretty much never, and he considered Gabriel a very good friend who would help him on any occasion he needed. His suggestion was surreal for him, but… Then again he does like Katt Monroe.

Standing, he nodded and paced out the pub, whilst the hedgecat was left to the Ice Tea and Sake all to himself. "That's mine I guess." He took the drinks and greedily drank.

In the docking area, Katt was just about to set the co-ordinates for her destination. She didn't really want to stay knowing she embarrassed herself to some extent, especially in front of Lombardi. She didn't feel like his reaction was a welcoming one, and so she was better off leaving. There wasn't anyone else in the docking area, but there were many other ships parked here, owing to the many customers.

Just as she was about to leave and close the windshield, she heard a voice call out for her name…

"Katt? Katt?" It was Falco…

She stopped what she was doing and got out of her ship, wondering what the pheasant wanted. "Falco? Is something wrong?" She asked.

He didn't respond but pulled her into a hug. "The only thing that's wrong was that I don't have you…"

"Falco… We… I can't…"

"You can…"

"But I… I don't know... I don't want to jeopardise what you have left…"

"But the only thing I can truly have right now is you…"

"Yeah… We did 'go for it' for the rest of the night, in the cockpit of her ship too." Falco finished explaining his story. He surprised himself that he was now open about the subject. He guessed that it was Gabriel's presence that influenced many things, and it was uncanny the fact he can do that.

Kursed found his story very interesting, much better than her own. She wouldn't have to explain hers since Falco didn't recognise who she really was, and it was for the best. Falco would've berated her for leaving Fox and creating a chain reaction of misery… But then when she thought about it, within all that misery sparked some positives. Slippy and Falco both have a lover, and that leaves herself, without one.

It was ironic, since she first had a lover out of all of the Star Fox crew, but was the first to lose one as well. There had been always a pool before her leaving that Falco would be able to charm Katt but lose her first, guess the bets off but if it was still somehow on, everyone but Falco would lose.

"Alright people, let's start handing out the ammunition. Everyone knows how to use a ballistic firearm?" Gabriel asked.

Caparzo nodded but examined one of the bullets. "These aren't purely ballistics you're sporting here." The Captain pointed at the purple dyed bullet. "Aren't plasma coated bullets illegal by Cornerian standards?"

"I'm not part of the Cornerian military, so the policy doesn't affect me. Besides, would you rather die today using little or win by bending a few rules?"

"Can't argue with that." Caparzo admitted. "But at the most, all the ammo had already been loaded into magazines, so that sorts out that part." She took a rifle and felt the weight examined the size. She liked the gun's moderate size; it had a character in itself. Sporting polymer stocks and custom heat proof grip, she deemed this rifle a well designed weapon. "Hmm, I like this one." She pulled the charging handle and locked it back.

Falco took a rifle for himself and took a magazine, loading it in to the rifle before pulling the charging handle. "Alright. I'll come with you guys."

"Sure you wanna do that Lieutenant?" The Captain wasn't sure that bringing a high ranking CO to the field would be a good idea, and it would make him a big target since he was a former Star Fox member. "You do remember what happened to Bill in Macbeth."

Lombardi strapped the gun to his back and scoffed. "The asshole is still alive isn't he?"

"I haven't seen Bill since the academy."

"Oh yeah I remember that…" Looking back at the memory of how Bill, despite his now high rank, had humiliated himself in front of many new recruits be shooting himself in the foot with handgun training. "It went something like "ARGH MY FOOT! SOMEONE AMPUTATE IT! OH GOD MY CAREER IS OVER!" He started flailing about to recreate the humiliating scenario.

Gabriel laughed, whilst Caparzo and Kursed chuckled at the idea.

"Fuckin' son-a-bitch lived, luckily. But still…"

"The canteen…" Gabriel recited the memory of how Bill got into a fight with another high rank, and even though he won the fight, he had a very bloody face. "The academy was the times laddie…"

After a few moments, the four continued to prepare all the weapons at hand.

Kursed filled her pockets with magazines for her carbine and a few for her handgun. She turned to Falco curiously, seeing how he looked nervous and how his hand shook. "You okay?" She asked.

"Just a lil' nervous if I was to be honest…" He snapped his fingers a couple of times, but found it a little useless.

The blue vixen took her flask and offered it to him. Frost decided to fill it with whiskey, and this relates to Rule no.1. "A little drink should help that…"

Lombardi accepted her offer and took the flask from her hand… But then noticed a small tattoo on her hand… It looked fairly familiar, but he disregarded it and instead opened the canteen and took a sip. Clearing his throat, he realised that he drank whiskey. "Smooth…" He commented. He didn't grimace at its hard taste but only welcomed how familiar it had become to him, as he had a lot of time to have shots before missions, but never takes it too far.

Closing the lid, he handed it over to vixen. He thanked her with a simple nod. "That should keep me calm for the most part." He stood and left the armoury with a crate of weapons.

The other three left and Kursed was left with her flask. She opened the lid and took a drink herself, since she felt a little nervous about the situation herself.

Jumping into cover, Gabriel had managed to successfully destroy one of the oncoming Venomian Landmasters. The situation had escalated faster than expected, but so far with the mercenary and bounty hunter's help, it was favoured for the Cornerian's.

Gunfire had come his way but none of the shots had hit since they were in cover. A vulpine with long red hair was unloading his weapon, but had all the medical gear as well.

"Sir, is there any wounded!?" The combat medic asked, keeping his head down from the oncoming volley of blaster and plasma fire.

"Two bastirts just got ankle topped, they're stuck behind one of the downed Landmasters." He blindly fired back at his enemies, not expecting it to hit anyone but it worked to suppress them. "We need to drag them out before it's more than their ankles."

Captain Caparzo dived into cover behind the said Landmaster. Needing to reload her weapon, she slapped off the empty magazine off her gun before getting a new one. For a bit of luck, she slapped the loaded magazine on her helmet before loading it in. "Shit, I can't believe this plan actually worked!"

She kept the wounded two behind the cover of the destroyed Landmaster. "These guys won't make it if we leave them here!"

Falco gathered three men armed with rifles similar to his own. "Get on my ass, follow me!"

Braving the crossfire, explosions and confusion between the two parties who fought each other on the beach, they managed to run through unscathed and unharmed. He ordered two of the men that followed him to help the two wounded men. "Get him to Red; he's the closest one who has all the medical gear."

The two soldiers didn't have any problem following orders, and they prepared to fall back into cover with Gabriel and Red. Once the covering fire had been given, the soldiers quickly ran back and avoided the core of the fighting.

Once the two wounded men had been pulled out, Gabriel and Red both proceeded to help them with whatever medical supplies they could muster. They didn't have any pain killers to sooth the intense burning the wounded had felt in their ankles. "Stay still! Come on, you'll be fine, just don't look at it!"

"Kursed! You and Caparzo flank them! Take the civilian passageway and climb up their side!"

The vixen and lynx saw a stairway that lead down stairs to the civilian walkway. It was most likely put there just in case someone mistakenly walked on the bridge road. The two ran towards the stairs, firing randomly at the enemy to keep them at bay. As anticipated, the Venomian army wasn't fairly aware of the civilian passageway, or maybe were too caught up in the fight.

"Come on, let's go!" The Captain took out her sticky bomb and a lighter. "You think this'll shake the bastards up?" As the made their way farther down the passageway and were just on the side of enemy lines, Kursed took out a Molotov. Noticing another stairway, they proceeded up and cautiously avoided being seen. There was a passing by Landmaster, and because the fighting soldiers didn't notice the two, their Landmaster was a vulnerable target. The Venomians were renowned for their brute strength and numbers, but not for their tactics or smart thinking.

Lighting the fuse, she smacked the sticky bomb behind the Landmaster as it passed by, just under its weak point. The two retreated but Kursed didn't think twice to throw her cocktail to create more dismay for the enemies.

The cocktail hadn't burned any of the armed Venomians but it did disorient them. The Landmaster was obliterated by the explosion of the improvised destructive explosive, and it knocked down the many soldiers who was beside it, and killed a few in the process as the debris and metallic shredded parts tore the few apart effortlessly.

The royalists were losing ground to a smaller force armed with technically inferior weapons (though not to mention the competitive ammunition they sport) and even when they lacked armour the Cornerians are a force to be reckoned with when determined.

Lombardi managed to shoot down a couple of royalists who were far too over-confident that they charged. It was a technique that usually was used to intimidate their foe, but frankly it was doing the opposite.

"They still have one Landmaster on the way. We're all out of Sticky Bombs!" Falco shouted out.

Gabriel strapped his gun on to his back and punched his fist into his palm, clicking the tension away from the fingers. "Alright, time for some unconventional warfare then…" He prompt Red to stay behind and take care of the wounded who kept coming in whilst he charges an advance to the enemy. Gabriel had never been intimidated by 'standard' weapon fire, since he was pretty hard to stop considering his 'immortal' blood. Sliding into cover and besides Falco who was holding their side of the bridge, he greeted him amidst the battle.

"What's the plan?" Instead of replying, Gabriel had already gone straight to then point when he posed in stance. Knowing what he was about to do, he ordered his men to get out of the way.

As all the men followed the order, not really sure as of why, Gabriel ran up to the burning debris of the heavy vehicle and kicked it with mighty force. The heavy scrapheap flew across the bridge like a ball flying across a football pitch, before it landed destructively and disorienting and crushing a few Venomian soldiers in the process.

"That was crazy!" Kursed declared. She couldn't imagine anyone being able to do that without cybernetic instalments, but Gabriel had none.

With some breathing room between the two parties firing at each other, Magilligan advanced with the Cornerians by his side. Kicking another pre-obliterated tank straight, he knocked down many more Royalists, crushing quite a few of them as well.

Most of the Cornerian soldiers who witnessed the inhuman strength of this mercenary had never been so surprised by anything else. Even the horrid experiments of Andross were of little compare to this one man who was a weapon in himself.

"Alright, keep the bastards running for their money and hit 'em hard!"

Just as a charge was ordered, a quake had shaken the ground and then again, the bridge itself wasn't immune to the tremors.

A large creature sprung out from the river below the bridge, and it had a ferocious design to it. Sporting an exterior bone structure and some of the bones protruding out of its arms and legs like a rose's thorn; it was grotesque for even Magilligan to look at, but not intimidating at the most.

The Cornerian soldiers however were fairly intimidated, but the Venomians soldiers had just fled the scenario altogether. It seems as though the Royalists were not going to fight something they weren't armed for, or prepared for.

"Gabriel!"

"Get every one off the bridge, this blighter's mine!"

Without hesitation, he ordered the men who were still able to walk to get to the other side of the bridge, with the few able to carry the wounded as well.

They all ran as fast as they could, avoiding the debris, corpses and the creature's line of sight. Some of the slower soldiers who hadn't made it too far past middle of the bridge, and were seen by the Giant, which it grew aggressive at their presence and with little effort, smashed its arm on them, breaking that part of the road bridge apart and killing them.

The mercenary wouldn't allow the creature to continue its rampage of slaughter, and had to step up his game in order to bring it down. To get its attention, he kicked a destroyed tank at the Giant. "Oi! Over here!"

"For many years, I have not met a mortal like you. Such a small man to taunt me with such power should be killed!"

"That size you have right there tells me you're overcompensating you bloody ugly sack of shiete!" The mercenary taunted.

"How dare you! You mock the mighty Titan you see before you!? I will make you suffer more than you have ever imagined!" The creature roared at the mercenary, creating a gust of wind that made part of Magilligan's coat cover his face.

Still not intimidated, he only chuckled and continued to mouth at the demon. "Hah! I'd like to see you try that!"

"Putrid mortal! Suffer my wrath!" The Titan threw its fist at the mix-breed mercenary with all its strength. The Titan's fist had managed to make contact with the hedgecat, but it had then noticed that the part of the bridge that it slammed its fist upon had not been destroyed. "What!?"

The men had already left, but Caparzo, Kursed and Falco stayed behind in order to watch over Gabriel to ensure the survival of a friend should he fail… They all doubted he would however.

Kursed watched from afar as Magilligan held off the creature, now armed with Gauntlets and Grieves. She could tell he was strong, but to wear Gauntlet and Grieves probably implied he was using Angelic weapons to amplify his strength. The Gauntlet and Grieves weren't worn prior to the attack, so she guessed that they were summoned, and it also gave her the impression that he prefers hand to hand combat with even the biggest of demonic creatures.

The hedgecat threw the large arm off him and only continued to taunt the Titan. "Come on then!"

Not going to take insults from something smaller than he was, the Titan continued to throw fists at the mercenary, who was speedily dodged the attacks and ran across the bridge, kicking disabled and destroyed Venomian Landmasters at him to continue to taunt him. "ENOUGH!" He cried, raising both of his arms to drop it on the hedgecat.

Magilligan only stood in place and saw an opportunity in the strike. As the Titan slammed its mighty arms down, he managed to barely dodge the anticipated attack in the last second. With the arms right next to him, he had a perfect attacking opportunity, and climbed onto it. He gestured a taunt with his middle finger. "Too slow…"

To the Titan, Magillgan was a mere fly that can be swatted with the simple strike of the hand. Attempting to catch him, he slid his right hand from the top of his left arm and down in order to 'swat' him away.

Jumping over the incoming hand, he ran up the left arm with his right arm ready to throw a powerful punch.

The Titan blocked the attack by putting his right hand over its face to minimise the damage it could have done, but it was punched away, leaving him defenceless.

The hedgecat dive kicked the Titan in the face to stumble him back, but he had no where to land, and so instead sprung his wings out to keep himself flight.

"An Angel!?"

"Alright… I'm gonna give you a choice." His Gauntlet and Grieves dissipated into light but then turned into some sort of scythe, Angelic in its look for the bright blue colour it was and glowing in blue. "Either you go back to whence you came, or you can stay and die. Your choice, make a decision."

"I shall not be intimidated by a foe that is smaller in size than me! I will honour my brethren who have been slain by your kin!" Charging at the Angel, the Titan recklessly swung his arms at him to try and subdue him.

The Angel hedgecat proved too fast for the large Titan's sloppy attacks, and eventually was able to get around them before getting fairly close. Seeing an arm attempt to catch him, he recoiled and drew his handgun, firing rounds at the demon's face. Though the shots were blocked, they distracted the large demon from attacking.

The bullets hit hard as they were angelically charged before they were shot, meaning that he couldn't allow them to pierce his particular weak spot: his face. He growled before blindly swinging at Magilligan.

Not anticipating the swing, he was sent flying back to an intact part of the bridge. Quickly recovering, he took his Scythe and threw it at the creature like a boomerang. His weapon was able to break the Titan's block and stun him for another attack.

Jumping back into the air, he caught the returning scythe and dived into the creature to engage it up close. "I warned you!" He reminded. With a feared weapon in hand he continued to slice and dice on the creatures face, though not trying to kill it just yet. He kicked himself off the Titan to give it a chance.

"Insolent creature! You think you have beaten me!?"

"That's exactly what I think!" Magilligan declared as he dived once again to slice through the Titan.

Slain, the creature fell into the river where it stood and from where it was cut, its upper and lower torso was split apart.

Landing back onto the bridge, he spun his scythe before it turned back into some kind of essence that his body absorbed.

The other three attended to the hedgecat who had finished the creature. Kursed asked: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…"

"Was that a high level demon?" The vixen asked.

The hedgecat shook his head. "It was a low to medium level. But still… It's a little… Concerning."

Falco nodded in agreement. "Someone's playing dirty…"

Reuniting with what was left of the attack force; Lombardi had the men set up a temporary camp to rest. They were all well supplied with food because of Gabriel, and Falco couldn't be any more thankful. He was a bit malnourished himself.

The vixen was curious to how Falco knew about Gabriel. "So… How did you find out about Gabriel…?"

"It's… Complicated." He responded. Looking closely to her eyes and examining her face, her features began to stand out more and look closer to someone to the person that Fox once loved. He kept it to himself however… But he knew, someone was playing dirty, and that might mean something bad is in store for every member of the former Star Fox...

**Disclaimer: Characters of Star Foxbelong to Nintendo. Other characters belong to me. Enjoy people. Got lazy and it got long **


	5. Chapter 5: Further Secrets

"Nothing yet…" Gabriel stated.

Falco nodded, watching from the top of a cliff as the Angel did. "So what do you think? Andross is back and is hunting us one by one?"

"Most likely, he's come back for round two and he's not happy." The Angel theorised. "So why didn't you want to help?"

The pheasant turned to the hedgecat but then turned away. He shrugged but attempted to reach for the tattoo that had been stained on his back. "It's still there. I haven't tapped into it for a while." He explained. What was on his back was the same tattoo that was on Gabriel's back, a ring with two Angelic wings and an 'X' like mark, though the lines of the 'X' were curved like a shuriken. "I just want to lead a normal life."

"You can't really. Eventually Kat will realise that you're not mortal."

Falco couldn't deny the fact that his mortality had been lost some time ago. When Lombardi started to get his life back together, he was told more about his own past which he barely knew about, nor really cared until he was forced to unleash his true potential. Still considered young blood, there is still much more to learn about his powers before he can become a veteran Angel like Gabriel. He'll never compare to the hedgecat but he likes the fact that he doesn't treat him any less than he treats any other friend.

Gabriel himself barely talks about his past, but then again, why would he want to? It made the Lieutenant curious. Magilligan is not shy, so maybe he can ask a little bit more about him. "So… What was it like, finding out you're not human?"

Producing the flask from his pocket, he opened it to take a swig of the strong whiskey and offered the flask to the pheasant. Lombardi accepted the generous offer, and he agreed to his question. "Well, I've always wondered what it is to be human. Even though by blood I'm not a human, to be human is to live like one. So I never really felt any different."

"Makes sense." Lombardi commented.

Gabriel decided to have a look at Lombardi's back and examined the tattoo. "When was the last time you used your sword?"

The pheasant shrugged, but began to search through his thoughts. It took him a couple of minutes but he remembered. "Bento Castle…"

"You mean the first time you've used your sword and abilities was the only time?"

"My first demon hunt too." He explained. Bento Castle was an abandoned island based castle found in Corneria but out of the Capital city. It was often thought that this desolate island was left to rot for the sole purpose of 'evil spirits' lurking around and terrorising anyone who attempted to live there or stay within its area for long.

It happened to be that it was indeed a demonic presence known as 'the Phantom', a Scorpion-Spider hybrid. "That was fun though, that thing was pretty fun to slay."

"What was it you said to that thing? 'If things are gonna get nasty, it's gonna be nasty for you?"

"Something like that." Falco said.

Gabriel nodded and chuckled. "He'd need more than a bloody stookie to patch what he got."

Another moment of silence had fallen upon them. They needed it in order to keep open ears, as hearing and seeing are two ways to spot an approaching enemy force. Falco doesn't have the sharpest of hearing but Gabriel is far too sharp, if he is concentrating enough however. With such pin-point accuracy in hearing sound, Frost can catch you quickly, but with hordes of enemies it's not as effective.

But what Lombardi lacked, made up with strength. Though he didn't look it, he is actually slightly stronger than Magilligan, but at the cost of being slower, so Lombardi was considered a 'Brawler Angel'. But since he hadn't actually used his abilities in a while, he is not entirely sure whether it'd still be as effective without proper practice but nevertheless, he would like to make use of it with the situation at hand.

A question however randomly found its way into his head. It was apparent that Fox had went missing, more so he was last reported to be seen orbiting Venom. He never cared about McCloud in the past as he always believed he would be fine where ever he went (though there was the time when he had to help him out during the incident in Sauria) but it now worried him that he was in enemy territory. No support, no attempts to rescue him and furthermore, no form of contact. McCloud was a tough fighter, but every fighter has their limits and their weaknesses that will drown out their capacity. It was no wonder that he needed his team mates, even though they get caught up in bad situations he helps and they eventually return the favour.

Where ever the vulpine is, Lombardi can only wish that he is safe and sound.

"So do you have any other questions?" Gabriel prompted.

The pheasant nodded in agreement. He turned his attention to the blue vixen that happened to be hired and travelling along with Gabriel. She reminded him of someone, and hopefully Magilligan had the answers since he could read minds unlike himself. "That blue vixen. She reminds me of someone, that 'person' I've told you about before?"

Magilligan nodded. "Yes."

"Is she that person that you're looking for?"

"She's the one. But I haven't told her about my primary objective." He explained how he continued his 'primary' objective despite Peppy telling him that he doesn't need to continue, but dedicated he continued anyways. "But I my objective isn't complete."

"Why not? You've found 'her', what's keeping you back?"

"It isn't that same 'her' you know of." He responded. "My objective was to bring Krystal back home to Fox McCloud to bring some sense into that bastirt, but I have two problems."

The pheasant took a few moments to think about what those problems could be… Nodding in acknowledgement, he understood those two problems. One of the problems is the fact that Fox is missing, and most likely held captive by the Venomian Royalists, and the second problem was the change in identity for the vixen. He understood that whenever someone changes their name and become a bounty hunter, they want to forget their own past and start anew… "So how'd you find her?"

"Like any bounty hunter who needs money. They accept a hire." Hearing birds chirp, he stopped himself for a moment. Checking his wrist watch that was set to the time of Titania, he noticed that it was almost 06:00. "It's best we get everyone ready."

Lombardi nodded and stood up, heading back to the camp area to wake the sleeping soldiers.

Walking along the desert for a while, Gabriel halted the soldiers as he noticed a building from far. Looking ahead with binoculars, he was able to spot Venomian soldiers moving supplies into transport ships.

"What are they doing? Don't they need the supplies?" Lombardi examined from a distance with his own set of binoculars. It is not usual for the Venomians to be getting rid of supplies since they usually bring quite a lot of them. "What do you think they're doing?"

"They're packing up operations. Something must've gone wrong elsewhere." The hedgecat called the two soldiers who were armed with his own custom laser designators which sends signals to his ship. "Target those ships."

The two soldiers aimed their laser designators at the targets and turned their weapons on. Doing so, it automatically turned on the long range weapons from Frost's ship: Intermediate-range low performance ballistic missiles.

"Now we wait for the fireworks lads." After waiting a couple of minutes, 2 of the said missiles had hit just outside the enemy base. Because of their low performance, they're not designed to do a ton of damage but they were more than capable of destroying Venomian ships and ruining their defences. Most of the Venomians seemed to be caught off guard, much to his liking. "Okay, we got them on their heels!"

Caparzo gathered her squad for the attack. "Just say the word."

Gabriel bolted his rifle. "Any reconsiderations?"

Kursed shook her head. "No one's backing out today." She responded. Checking her rifle, she pulled the charging handle to ready it for battle.

Caparzo slapped a new magazine a couple of times on her helmet for luck, before loading it into her rifle. "This is my rifle, without my rifle I'm useless, without me my rifle is useless."

The hedgecat cried "FREEDOM!" and the soldiers stood and charged towards their disoriented enemies.

Like any soldier who realise they are under attack from the enemy, they attempt to defend themselves by firing towards the charge, but because of the missile that had sabotaged their moving operations, which meant most of the supplies they had were destroyed and quite a few soldiers had already perished from the explosion.

Closing the distance, Gabriel kicked down a soldier before he had the chance to draw his pistol. "Goal."

Lombardi shot down a couple of soldiers before sliding in cover. "Not much of a challenge, eh Gabe?"

There weren't many Venomians to defend their territory from the Cornerian soldiers, and so it was easy to advance through.

Making their way into the primary base, they noticed how deserted it was, almost desolate. It seemed as though all the Venomians were killed during the charge and explosion.

Whilst the other Cornerian soldiers clear the scenario from outside, Kursed, Frost and Falco ventured inside the primary laboratory. Though like every other building it was empty, the machinery seemed to be still functioning to this moment, mainly the computers that still processed data automatically.

Gabriel examined the computer, and attempted to gain direct access to any useful data, but the computer was code locked to automatic only and he was unable to break through. Despite this, he told the other two not to touch anything. Most of the data results were transcribed to Venomese, which neither Kursed nor Falco could read. Magilligan was able to read certain bits of it, but still was not able to understand what it all meant, so it was as good as jibber-jabber to him.

"You have any idea what it says?"

Magilligan let out a disappointing sigh and shook his head. "I can't make out shiete. I'm not good at reading Venomese." He admitted. Though he could read Venomese, he was able to enter a code that allowed him to gain access to a separate database of files that were English. These files were mostly bits and pieces of information regarding a test subject who wasn't explicitly named but was labelled as 'Cornerian Red Fox'. It was an implication but not solid evidence, but still copied the data to a data chip for further investigation.

Noticing that the multiple computers had cables leading to the next room, she thought that these computers were recording data to on-going experiments. "Maybe we should have a look around. These computers must be connected to something, considering we're in a lab."

Lombardi and Magilligan agreed to the suggestion and left the computer alone. They followed the cables that the vixen had pointed out for them, going deeper into the laboratory. They stopped in front of a door that read in English 'CAUTION', much like Frost's own laboratory in his ship. The trio readied their weapons as the pheasant put his hand on the door pad which was not identity locked, and was ready to open the door.

"Do it." Kursed prompted.

As the door opened, the three rushed in with their weapons up to their shoulders. Likewise, still no assailants to deal with but… They were greeted by a horrible sight. Frost lowered his rifle as he stared in shock at the sight of multiple capsules with hibernating demons of all different levels.

"Demons… So this is what Andross is working on?" The lieutenant pressed his rifle next to the capsule of a low ranking demon, not intimidated by its gruesome features. The one he stared at was known as a 'Stygian', though the same size as a normal mortal they had thin armour plating in place of skin, and they had helmets on their head to cover their deformed face. Another striking feature of the Stygian was the large blade protruding out of their left arms, their primary weapon that serves them. Stygian were ranked by lesser to elite, bearing different armour and blade types.

Though she found the sight of another demon vulgar, she couldn't pull her sight away from it. The demon she looked at was labelled as a 'Blitz', a reptilian like creature that had metallic plating over its eyes, possibly because it was blind. There were spikes of bones that protruded out of its flesh, similar to Bones they had encountered earlier but not as gruesome in physical appearance. "I… I can't believe he'd do such a thing…" She took that statement back immediately when she remembered what Andross had done to her home planet of Cerenia.

Filled with rage, the hedgecat took his rifle and started to unload a barrage of ammunition on the hibernating demons. The vixen and pheasant did the same with their weapons and unleashed a wall of lead upon the creatures before them. They did not care about their ammunition, and reloaded and fired at each and every capsule they could see in this room, annihilating the sleeping monsters.

Before long they had spent every last 5.45x39 bullet out of their inventories, and had killed every demon within the room… Except the Blitz that Kursed had earlier examined. Drawing his pistol, Gabriel was about to shoot it dead, but it broke free of its capsule and unleashed its very power of electricity.

"Bloody hell lad. Someone woke up to a bad mood."

The three stood before the Blitz who though was sightless, had his sense of touch, hearing and smell amplified. It wasn't long before the creature picked up the scent of the three, but couldn't pick which one it wanted to attack first. Startled by the sudden sound of footsteps, it sped around the room in the form of a lightning bolt.

The pheasant kept track of his foe. "Try not to move or make a sound." He whispered. Lombardi encountered a Blitz before, and they were fast creatures but because of the lack of eyesight, they could easy manipulate it, but what made it difficult to defeat was the electrical energy surrounding it, acting as a shield from direct attack. "We need to get rid of its shield."

"I've got an idea. I'll be the bait." The bounty hunter suggested.

The mercenary nodded. "I can get rid of its shield with a few charged shots from my gun. When it's gone, finish it Falco."

Keeping to the plan, Kursed ran out into the open and whistled to her hearts content. When she saw the lightning bolt Blitz return to its normal form to charge at her, she rolled out the way. She continued to lead the creature around as if she was a bull fighter against a blind but furious bull. Though the creature was fast, she was always able to predict his blind charges and get out of harms way.

While Kursed was distracting the creature, Gabriel was able to fully charge energy from himself to his pistol. "We're ready…" Before the creature was able to attack, turning from a lightning bolt to its normal form he fired the shot which knocked back the demon. Seeing that the electrical energy dissipated in one fell swoop, he prompted Lombardi to finish the job.

Though it had been a long time since he had tapped in to his full potential power, let alone summoned his sword and used it in combat, he wasn't hesitant to try again. He felt the old feeling of euphoria overtake him, and light illuminated the tattoo on his back. Veins of light made its way down his arm before he now held a katana which was labelled 'Sakura'.

Hearing Falco, the Blitz rushed at him; though not as fast as it would be the creature was still fairly strong. Stepping back, he blocked the strike with his sheathed blade. Throwing the strong arm off, he unleashed a barrage of attacks, hitting it with his unsheathed blade with full force before kicking it away.

Landing next to Kursed, the creature growled and roared out in anger. It didn't intimidate the bounty hunter, and she punched it in the face, though hurting her hand it still managed to knock the creature a few steps back. She shook off the aching pain of her hand and felt satisfied for giving the powerful blow.

To finish the combo, Gabriel stepped in and kicked the creature in the chest but pulled it back in to give it powerful blows from his fists, left and right, one-two-one-two! The hedgecat uppercut the creature into the air and as it fell helplessly to the ground, Magilligan spun and thrust kicked the demon with full force. Kicking it to the other side of the room, he taunted the blind creature, clapping his hands together. "Come on, even me mam could do better than that."

He turned to Lombardi who held the handle of his katana, ready to draw it. "Let's finish this." Gabriel suggested, summoning his scythe before it formed into a broadsword and pointed it at the Blitz.

The lieutenant agreed, drawing his katana before knocking aside the pointed broadsword and charging at the Blitz. Gabriel followed with his sword ready to strike, and both Angels cried out as they assaulted the battered demon.

The hedgecat drove his sword straight into the creature's chest, whilst the pheasant sped past the creature and swung his blade straight up to cut through it. The mercenary retrieved his sword and placed it on his back whilst Lombardi sheathed his katana into its scabbard from behind his back. As their weapons were put away, the Blitz kneeled down in submission.

The blue vixen drew her pistol, spinning it before putting it on the demon's head. "Go back to hell." The crash of gunfire echoed through the room.

Leaving the Venomian headquarters behind and returning back to the Cornerian outpost of Titania, the trio watched as the soldiers celebrated their victory despite overwhelming odds. Gabriel took a crate of beer from the supplies donated from him, and he handed all the soldiers a can.

Because there was no form of opposition in Titania anymore, the soldiers agreed to allow their commanding officer to leave on a quest. Caparzo, being the most trusted Captain out of all the others there, was appointed to be in charge of operations whilst Lombardi was gone. She could only assure him that she was capable of the job.

Caparzo took a can, opening it and taking a swig, grimacing at the flat taste. "Not really what I wanted but I can't just throw it away.

"Well lads, lassies, today you celebrate your victory and the taste you taste is the taste of our enemies' defeat. Even though we fight them today, we must remember, one day they'll be our ally." He raised his can. "Let's drink to our victory." As he raised the can to pour the alcohol down to his mouth, the soldiers followed. He grimaced at the flat taste, much like Caparzo. "You're right, it does taste like shit." He agreed and chuckled.

The vixen, though had stared into the face of a demon, and killed sleeping ones with her rifle; she didn't fear what she saw… She feared nothing more than Fox's fate, and not even a demon would shake her. It had been only a few days, yet she felt as though she was winning a battle that could've lasted months; a battle of conflict within her mind. One side of her thoughts had the idea that Fox and the others would not accept her back in to their lives and leave her to be alone, but the other side which had pushed forwards was the thought that they would regardless allow her to return to their lives as if nothing happened. She hoped that Fox still loved her.

As the pheasant bid farewell to his comrades, he followed Gabriel onto his ship along with Kursed. As the doors closed, Frost quickly made his way to the controls and started the ship up, ready for take off.

After a couple of minutes, the small crew was finally leaving Titania, and on to their next destination: Macbeth.

Gabriel set the ship to auto-pilot, and went to the kitchen. He noticed how Kursed had helped herself to a tub of ice cream. He had quite a few of them in the freezer and always likes to treat himself to one every now and again, but never has he seen a woman tuck in, unless they were upset or fretting about something. "Rocky road, hmm?" The hedgecat helped himself to a cold bottle of soda, removing the bottle cap with his bare hand.

As Falco entered, he saw the glass bottle of soda and chuckled. "I'll have one of those." Gabriel threw one to him, and he caught it without fail. Opening his bottle of soda, he took a good gulp of the fizzy and sweet liquid. How it satisfied his parched lips was beyond his description, but it was great.

The hedgecat noticed that the pheasant wore something quite different to what he preferred to wear before. While Falco was known for wearing pilot attire or mercenary pilot clothing, what he sported now was completely different. He wore a long coat which had the Cornerian symbol imprinted in sky blue colour on the right bottom side of the coat, whilst there was no left side, possibly to his custom design. He also wore dark brown trousers and formal leather shoes, and interestingly enough, Falco had a fedora which went with the coat as well. "Since when did you start looking fancy?" He sarcastically asked.

"Well, I have to look stylish out there."

"It's not really you if I was to be honest." It was Gabriel's opinion however, and he knew that Falco need not to take it into account.

"Well, what do you think… 'Krystal'."

The emphasis on her former name caught her attention fast. She turned to Falco with widened eyes, who returned a firm but relaxed stare. She was practically panicked at this point, but staring at his relaxed facial expression seemed to dull the worry. "How did you know?"

"There's only one blue vixen I know who has Cerenian tattoos on her tail." He remarked, grabbing hold of his cola bottle and pointing at the said tattoos on her fox tail. "The hair may be longer, but the face, voice and height are all the same. It took me a little while to figure it all out however."

"Slow bastard." Magilligan affectionately said to his friend.

Lombardi 'flipped the bird' at Frost, but just as affectionately as the insult. "I can get that things got a little out of hand before you left. Trust me, after you left it didn't get any better for all of us." He explained. "But the question that bugs me the most is why did you come back? I'm not saying you can't or anything but it bothers me."

"That's a first, something bothering you." Magilligan sarcastically remarked.

The bounty hunter was a little hesitant at first since she didn't really want to answer the question, but then again she felt reassured that Falco wasn't angry at her for the past. After another spoonful of chocolate ice cream that was filled with marshmallows, almonds and fudge, she decided to answer. "I… I want to set things straight."

The Cornerian Lieutenant understood. "Makes sense. I guess that's the reason for a lot of people who leave and come back."

"I did cause a few problems, and leaving them wasn't the answer. It was my fault that Fox lost his mind, and wherever he is now, I just hope we can find him so I can say one thing that I should've said before."

The pheasant nodded in acknowledgement again, but tapped on Kursed's shoulder to prevent her from saying anything else. "Then you save it for him. Don't waste it on us."

She wondered whether this was the same Falco Lombardi she had teamed up with all those years ago when they were part of Star Fox. In the past, he was overconfident and arrogant, mouthing off even to Fox who was technically the leader of the team. He was always one up for a fight and isn't afraid to instigate a bad situation with his horrible but somewhat creative use of language. Time has changed him, and now he is a little more calm and collected in comparison to his old self. He also seemed to be more warm and sociable, possibly because Katt had helped him to become more open towards others.

He was different, and regardless of how Falco acted, he was still Falco Lombardi at heart. She somewhat admired this change, but knew that there were consequences that came with the benefits of time. Remembering that he was able to summon a weapon, and that he had a tattoo on his back (that was similar to Gabriel's), she suddenly realised another change. "You're an angel too?"

"It's a funny story really." He explained that down his ancestry bloodline, some of them turned out to be Guardian Angels. Because they mated with mortals, the bloodline became dormant, and it wasn't until Falco was found out to be able to use these powers that the Angels needed him.

He had admitted that he's still quite inexperienced with his potential power, but is willing to experiment with what he can do in battle. "The least I can say is that Frost is here to help me out with those powers. If we're going to be fighting demons along the way, I may as well get to it."

"The bastirt Andross thinks he can play God? Once we find out where Fox is, we bring him home and then we find Andross."

"Mind if I tag along?" Kursed asked.

Magilligan nodded but smiled. "But don't expect to get paid. I'm only paying you to help me find Fox." He smiled, because he knew that he might get paid for killing Andross himself, since there wasn't a bounty put on his head. It seemed as though even the most powerful of people wouldn't dare put a price on his head, because Andross would put a better price on theirs.

"So 'Kursed', what have you been doing whilst you were out of the Lylat System?" Falco asked, curious to know about her current occupation.

She shrugged. "I became a Bounty Hunter. But business has been a little competitive, I was lucky to have a job at all." Since her return to the Lylat System, she had hit a plethora of memories that she now regrets trying to forget. She didn't want to be alone anymore, and she wanted to find her Fox McCloud. She wanted to redeem herself for all the wrong she had done to him. "I just want to make things right."

Lombardi nodded. "Well, I guess everyone has to make a living somehow." He commented. Falco admired her sense of justice, and could only compliment her. Taking a sip of his cola, he took a seat. "It's sort of weird. Gabriel told me you haven't been around the Lylat System for long yet everything is hitting you with memories."

That felt true. Where ever she went, memories of Fox and the team pop up and taunt her, berate her for her leaving. Saying sorry couldn't fix any of it, but she must directly confront what she had caused.

"Well, everyone should get some sleep. G'night lass."

The vixen smiled as she left, feeling assured by Falco that she was forgiven or maybe that the Star Fox team was never angry at her. She loved Fox, and hopefully Fox still had feelings for her.

It was a sunny summer morning; the sun shone brightly upon the beautiful earth, illuminating the bloom of the flowers, the homes of the people and signalling a happy day for many to come. As for those who weren't going to have a happy day, eventually they will lighten up and begin to enjoy the 'brighter' side of life. Today was bright, happy at the most. Today had become more important for the men and women who were coupled especially: It was Valentine's Day!

February 14th, regarded by some as 'Cupid's busiest day of the year'. The day of gifts for lovers, ranging from the common chocolate with Valentines card to greet and wish one's lover a happy day, some will be taking the other out and some will just be 'romantic'. It's a special day indeed, and hopefully there'd be nothing to ruin this day for anyone. It'd be unfortunate should it happen…

Fox had taken Krystal to a lovely view of Macbeth. Since its salvation from the Venomians, it had returned to its routes as a large scale holiday planet. Most Cornerian couples come here during Valentine's Day, and Fox and Krystal seemed to be one of those couples.

"This is wonderful…" Krystal admitted, enjoying the beautiful view. "Thank you for taking me here Fox."

"Anything for my love…" He said.

The blue vixen looked towards her loving vulpine who poured a glass of champagne for the both of them. She didn't really drink, but she liked the sparkling taste of champagne. "Loving this."

"I love you more."

"Forever?"

The vulpine nodded. "Forever and ever, I love you." He meant every single word.

She read his mind and felt the powerful feelings herself, that he loved her, and that he promised forever.

She decided to have a shower before going to bed, and so she headed to the bathroom closest to her room. She forced the lock on the door so that no one can come in, she wanted her privacy. Before she entered, she noticed the calendar was marked as 14th February. It was Valentine's Day, but because she was currently single, she classified it as Single Awareness Day. Hopefully by next year, she'd be able to celebrate it with her beloved Fox…

She threw aside her combat clothing, and felt free as she pranced the bathroom nude. Her free body felt a little dirty after all that sweat inducing combat, she needed a good wash. A lady like herself shouldn't leave themselves without a good bathing or shower, and must take the opportunity.

Turning on the shower head, she kept the water and the hottest temperature. Kursed preferred the heat and would never bathe or shower in cold or even luke-warm water. Standing in the heated spray of steaming shower water reminded her of the dream she had a couple of nights ago. She wondered what it'd be like to shower with her mate… Or maybe more. She never did shower with Panther, but she didn't want to think about him.

She lathered blue fur and hair with shampoo, and she loved the soft bubbly feeling of the shampoo foaming in her fur. She cleansed the dirt that and sand that had resided on her fur and skin, and removed the darkening dirt that created a colour imbalance on her usually cobalt blue fur.

Her body became hot. The vixen felt the surge of the lust and desire that she had felt before and she was losing control again. She felt herself again, even if it did little to cool her off. Her body began calling to her, as a weird tingling sensation began to coil through her as her thoughts accurately portrayed what happened before with Fox in the shower… Fox may not have been her first, but definitely was the one who gave her the idea of how love making truly would've felt like…

He caressed every part of her and missed nothing that she wanted to be felt. Her body was covered in hot shower water and it was constantly sprayed by it, keeping her hot even though she already was heated. The figment of her imagination returned, pressing kisses on her neck and her body. She knew he wasn't really there but it was amazing.

She didn't touch herself, but she felt as though something was pleasuring her mound and trying to inch its way in. "Fox…" She breathed.

The figment chuckled as it continued to tease her. "Krystal…" The name sent chills down her spine. "My sweet Krystal…"

It was just an imagination, it should be just an imagination, but it felt all too real! She couldn't tell if she had died and went to heaven or if this was a God send to make her feel happy.

She was even swept off her feet, as if this imaginary Fox was real and carrying her in the shower. . "You're beautiful... Do you know that?"

Kursed smiled "I know. Everyone is beautiful in their own way."

"But not how you are to me..." The imaginary McCloud felt that Kursed, had to be the most beautiful creature that this earth could offer to him. He had a personality like the real Fox McCloud who was as passionate as she could remember. The vixen stared at the vulpine, just pure eye contact, with his green eyes and her turquoise eyes disregarding their surroundings but each other. "You're my precious emerald that I wouldn't trade for even a diamond."

The vixen felt a weird blend of urgency, and content. "What... What do you do to me Fox?" She couldn't tell. He was a drug, the perfect drug that one would take for the rest of their life and not anyone know about him.

"I..." The figment of imagination paused and thought about it. He didn't know himself. "I honestly don't know what I do to you Krystal..." He pressed his lips against her neck. The tables had turned once again, and for the second time out of this relationship, Fox had stolen the dominant spot.

"Fox... Fuck me." The best way to put it.

The taller, muscular man positioned Krystal for her to lean on the shower door, while he held a leg up to take her. "My pleasure." Without further ado, he pushed in deep and hard into the vixen, feeling the tight walls convulse upon him. He began to thrust and in rhythm with Krystal's hips that spasmed in response to his thrusts.

He isn't real but he was pleasing her right there! Her vision blacked out but she was still conscious, but her mind flooded with images of him, just like before. The images flashed by fast but it wasn't hard to tell what these images were about, he was ravishing her body with her mighty thrusts. "Ugh! Yes! Oh Fox! I... I feel so good!" His thrusts and her filled mind both started to trigger a build of intense ecstasy. "Fox! Fox! Ugh yeah!"

"You're so good Krystal dear!" The way he called her dear was such a turn on...

Another powerful thrust after another, it was overwhelming her like before, only even better! She couldn't build up anymore of this pleasure, she had to release! "Fox! I can't hold!" 'If this is a dream, don't wake me up!'

"Don't be shy..." Fox whispered into her ear, still thrusting and pressing kisses from her neck to cheek. "Together... We'll let... It... Out!" Fox gave one more deep and powerful thrust, and he finally came. His orgasm pulsated, sending waves of raw pleasure coursing through his body in uncontrolled fashion, and leaving his seed deep into Krystal.

"Fox!" She screamed his name as her body gave way to her orgasm, at the same time as the imaginary McCloud... And it was far more intense than any orgasm she has ever had before, it seemed almost ridiculous, but Kursed couldn't complain at this point. Her body was almost drained of energy, but the showerhead still poured hot water down on her, keeping her awake.

The figment of imagination disappeared as reality seeped back in. She sighed as she realised it was only herself that could give the current pleasure… She wanted Fox… Her true lifemate.


	6. Chapter 6: Impatience

She woke to the alarm clock. It was sudden, but she had purposely set the alarm for 6:55AM anyways. Despite the little sleep she actually got, she was far too relaxed and somewhat energised from the second encounter with the imaginary Fox McCloud. Even though it was just a figment of her imagination, she had an orgasm like no other, and felt so fulfilled… She wondered whether this was just a sign of things to come. If true pleasure is this good, then she couldn't wait.

The vixen sat up in her bed and noticed on the desk across the room folded garments and a gift box besides it. Curious, she stood to examine the provided clothes; the pile had a note. 'Hand made just for you.' Was written on it. She took the first layer of clothing, which was a thin cobalt leather long coat with a shortened right arm sleeve. Setting it aside, she took the leg wear which was a pair of cobalt trousers; having a closer look at it, the trousers was designed to allow the wearer free roaming legs. The last layer of clothing was a navy blue shirt that would go well with the other two provided clothes.

Turning to the gift box, she unwrapped the said gift box and opened it. Inside was the handgun she had used before, but this time it seemed to be tuned up. The size of the barrel was bulkier and it was attached with a compensator. Engraved on the pistol grip was the Star Fox logo, but in blue, symbolising her former affiliation to the currently disbanded team. The pistol grip had a picture of a 'fair haired' woman. Despite that fact, she smiled at the logo, as it reminded her of herself since she was a blue vixen.

Putting on the garments, she examined herself. The clothes fit very well and they gave her the sort of professional look that Falco and Gabriel had with their coats. "Nice…" The fabric against her skin and fur was soft, and she always preferred a soft texture.

Making her way to the primary communications area, she saw Gabriel and Falco reviewing their course around the Lylat System.

"If we stop at Macbeth, we might waste time there. We really need to consider going straight to Venom if we want to find Fox."

Gabriel agreed on the idea. "But first we need to get some supplies. There should be a nearby supply space station in Macbeth that we can stop off to."

"What kind of supplies are you thinking?"

"Black market, Demonic and Angelic black market." The hedgecat showed a small card which had a symbol similar to both of their tattoos but in the middle was a bag of coins. "This pass access to that market if we can find the right person."

The pheasant understood.

"So what do you plan on buying?" The blue vixen asked.

The two looked at her. "Enchanted weapons for you. We want to make sure you're well armed to fight demons." He showed his sword once more. "I could give you mine, but it's my personal weapon."

The bounty hunter understood. As long as they got her a weapon that works then she won't hesitate to use it. She felt a little overwhelmed the fact that the two had provided her weapons and garments in the form of gifts. She may have to use them for the sake of saving one's life but she was grateful. It had been a long time since she had a friend. It was kind of funny how her former colleague who would be cold and distrustful towards a traitor renewed their friendship so fast.

"So how are the gifts?" Falco asked, folding his arms. When Kursed smiled and gestured a thumbs up, he smiled back. "I guess you like the garments."

Frost pointed at the gun. "I based the gun design off of a friend of mine. She has two just like yours." He handed her a holster designed specifically for that gun, which it had attachable magazine pockets and it was to be worn as a belt. She put on the holster belt and placed the gun in the holster pocket, locking it in place with the button strap.

The hedgecat looked at his watch and noticed that the clock had struck 7:30AM. "Bugger. I didn't even get to cook up a good breakfast."

"Oh please do." Falco urged. "Fill up our stomachs with lotsa food." The pheasant was familiar with Magilligan's habit to cook so much just for breakfast. Even though he finds it a little difficult to fill his beak with all of his food, he loved how it was done accordingly to how he wanted it.

"So for you, cheese omelette, extra potatoes and sausages." He recited Falco's favourite set up. "How about you lass?"

"I'll have the same, thank you." When Kursed left Star Fox, she never usually had a lot to eat, but since she came back and teamed up with Gabriel, her stomach had expanded. Because she was a bounty hunter who needed the energy to fend off enemies, she found no problem to it as she'll be able to keep fit. Using up energy that you couldn't provide yourself with is a problem and leads to tiredness in the field.

After breakfast, they had cleaned up everything they used. They were nourished and energised. Not wanting to be distracted anymore, Gabriel had to brief the other two. "Alright." He clapped his hand to grab the other two's attention. "So we're stopping at Macbeth. And if I'm not mistaken, we might find a few demons there as well. Our last stop at Titania must've caught Andross' attention as well so we must be cautious."

"Right."

He tapped Falco on the shoulder to signal him to take over the controls for the ship. As Falco left, he turned to Kursed. "Let's get some equipment ready."

"I thought we're stopping at Macbeth to get equipment." The vixen sarcastically said. She stood up and followed the mix-bred mercenary to the armoury to load up on weapons. "So what do we need this time?"

Gabriel took a short barrel shotgun. "Close quarter weapons. The market we'll be going to is narrow." He took a bandolier of shotgun shells and wore it over his shoulder.

With the set weapons in mind, Kursed looked for an appropriate close range weapon. Her eye caught on to a small machine pistol. She took hold of the weapon and showed it to Frost. "What about this one?"

Looking at the weapon, he approved. "That one is a nice one. Served me a couple of times. The MP7."

"What's so good about it?" She wondered.

"That machine pistol is a personal defence weapon, designed to be the alternative solution for close quarters combat." He loaded his revolver and spun the chambers. "Ballistic sub machineguns fire low velocity pistol cartridges that aren't capable of defeating armour easily, and rifles are but are heavier and even the shortest rifles can't match the small size of the SMG or SMP." He pointed to a box full of ammunition for the weapon.

The vixen took to loading spare magazines for her PDW. "So the PDW is small, but is capable to handle armour huh?" Most Cornerian and Venomian Armours were able to stop low calibre rounds but were easily compromised by intermediate rifle cartridges. Requests to replace the armours have since been ignored and knowing that they were able to defeat the Venomians on Titania with technically old fashioned rifles assured Kursed that they could handle the situation. The small weapon also had a stock that she could extend for precise firing, as a single hand to shoot a rapid-fire weapon would be inaccurate. "I guess this would be appropriate for me."

The mix-bred mercenary took a few weapons for Falco. He provided the pheasant with a PP-19 Bizon. Though it was larger than Gabriel's short barrel shotgun and Kursed's MP7, it was still small enough to be easily concealed. Falco was known to be the trigger happy type, and the PP-19 Bizon used a 64 round drum magazine.

He was also a very good shot with about any weapon he could use. His extensive training with Gabriel had seen him through training to improve his marksmanship.

With Kursed now under his wing, he'll have to be able to prepare her for the tougher enemies that they will face. Yesterday did a great risk have to face a Blitz with a mortal by their side, since Blitz were one of the elite demons out there. Hopefully they won't be handling anything tough this time and they get what they need.

"I'll be fine here Frost. You just go grab yourself a coffee or something."

The hedgecat accepted the offer to leave but instead headed straight to the cockpit, where Falco handled the ship. They were close to Macbeth. "Okay. Let's set this down." Taking a seat in the secondary pilot ship, he examined the ship's status through the screens in front of him.

"Are you sure you want to get Krystal involved in all of this?"

"We all know that she plays the most important role of this whole situation. Regardless whether she is mortal or not, she will come."

Falco understood and took note that they were ten minutes away from Macbeth's orbit. There was a moment of silence that sort of played with Lombardi's patience. He wanted to talk about something that the two can relate to.

It struck him as he remembered that both he and Gabriel were mated to someone they love. More so, Gabriel had a daughter, and Falco wanted his opinions on children. "So what's it like to have kids?"

Taking a moment to think about his daughter, he smiled at the nostalgic memories that flowed like water down a river. "It's good." That was the summary in a nutshell. In his honest opinion, having a child is great but requires responsibility and determination to provide for the child or children. He was a loving father, and was glad that he was able to raise his child alongside the mother. "After this is all done, start a family Falco. When you have kids, spoil them every chance ye get but make sure they deserve it." That's what he had done.

"Good advice." Kursed commented as she overheard the conversation. She was curious about children herself. "Talking about children Falco? That's not the Falco I knew from before." She teased. Kursed knew how Falco just hated kids in the past and how he barely got along with any young ones that he meets, even cadets of the Cornerian Juniors were victim to his terrible attitude.

Seeing the pheasant talk about wanting children with Katt was very different, but a welcome change to him just being either quiet or an arrogant idiot.

"Well… You know. I have to start thinking about it. I love Katt and we both want to start a family, I mean most husband and wives eventually want kids." He stated. Lombardi and Katt had been discussing about having children for a quite some time, and eventually Falco decided that he'll be trying for a baby on return.

"A family huh…?" Thinking back to when she was with Fox, she remembered that Fox wasn't interested in starting a family, at least not whilst he was helping the Cornerian army repair itself from the damages it has taken from hostile armies of the Lylat System. She wondered the possibility whether not only he'd take her back, but whether they'll eventually try for a baby and have a family.

Not that she wanted to start yet… It's just for future considerations, that's all.

"So when we find Fox… What do we do?" Falco asked.

It was a good question for both Lombardi and Kursed wanted an answer. Would it bring the Star Fox team back together? Would it mean that everything that they have distanced themselves from in the past will return to stay?

"Well. For one thing, I'm guessing it might mean Star Fox is back together. Owing to your presence Kursed."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"You'll find out eventually." He responded vaguely. He didn't want to spoil anything, as if it were a surprise.

The ship landed in the docking station of Macbeth, with clamping hooks to keep it secure. Dock guards awaited outside the ship's main exit, where Gabriel had come from to secure his place and ship with the security there. He had registered himself and the ship for security purposes, and so that they know where they'll find it and that security is responsible for the ship's safety whilst Gabriel and the crew were gone.

Thereafter, the group were led to the markets by request of Gabriel, who had managed to pay for an escort to Macbeth's notorious market. Since the Anglar Blitz, business in Macbeth flourished, to the point where it became the second economically advanced planet of the Lylat System. Though most markets were street based, these markets always seem to provide quality items: Consumables, home appliances, and most popular for both military and criminals, weapons.

Every stall had a seller who advertised themselves by offering deals, making it obvious to what they were selling or speak directly to passer-bys, and every stall had a customer every time there were any passer-bys.

Kursed seemed to be the first one who stopped, as she took note of a stall selling various jewels. "Man. These look pretty."

Examining closely, Gabriel confirmed that they were in fact genuine. "These are fine gems. It must have been hard to gain these."

"On the contrary, I have worked hard to find the rough diamonds, and I send them off to be cut. I may have to pay for them to be cut, but the rewards are worth it. Diamonds are expensive to sell in comparison to paying for just cutting them." The jewellery salesman then pointed specifically to the pink diamond, trying to get the trio to buy it. "This is my most expensive jewel, going up to about 59.9 karats…"

Falco had bought a pink diamond before, for Katt. He knew that they were expensive, and the richest would auction high prices for it in Corneria, but in Macbeth, it can be found in some jewel stalls. The reason why it hadn't been bought is probably because of its ridiculous price of twenty thousand bits, among the other diamonds which were either similar in size but for far cheaper, as cheap as five-thousand bits. It was rare, but diamond seekers sometimes come to Macbeth to obtain them for their own personal gain. Lombardi bought one to commemorate his love to Monroe, and hopefully that if they do have a child, they will pass on the jewel.

Though she did want to buy a diamond, she didn't want to spend unnecessarily, so she forced herself away from the stall.

"So what does our guy look like? Does he look dark or mystic or does he look like an asshole?" Lombardi asked.

"He's a meat seller."

Kursed was fond of meat because of her Cerenian childhood. When she was younger, she took note of how predominant meat was for the Cerenian culture. Though vegetables and other forms of food were eaten, meat was the common food for both royalty and the normal civilian.

The cobalt vixen herself always preferred red meat like beef or pork. She may not look the type to enjoy lots of meat but she is a mercenary who needed the energy, and proteins are her best friend in keeping fit.

But most of her meaty treats aren't healthy, but regardless she couldn't care less. Fox cooked her food that she'd enjoy, and she didn't care how much fat or how many calories they contained, just as long it tasted good. McCloud always made her something she liked: thinking back to his cooking watered her mouth… But then again… His cooking might not be the only thing good to taste…

She stopped herself from thinking of such 'inappropriate things' in public, otherwise she'd do something stupid.

"Meat for sale!"

The trio followed the call and confronted the meat salesman.

"Ah, customers. Would you like to buy my quality meet?" The salesman seemed fairly young as he had no grey hairs, but he concealed his arms with long sleeve shirts despite the warm weather. He stood out among the crowd as other vendors did not have long sleeve type clothing.

The salesman was a red fox who wore a flat cap, and had fairly long hair. This man also had blue Safire eyes that were almost comparable to the diamonds the jeweller had on his stall since they too gleamed in sunlight.

Gabriel had a closer look at the fox's eyes, to which the fox did not retreat but rather return a similar stare. "Hmm…" The mercenary pulled back slowly before showing the Angelic pass.

The young looking anthro-fox recognised the symbol on the card, and looked around before inviting the trio in to his shop which was connected to the outside stall. "You are the one who called before?"

"Yes."

"Frost isn't it? You three Angels must need something very important if you're looking for Angelic or Demonic arms."

"Actually, I'm mortal." Kursed added.

The fox turned to look at the blue vixen, though not quite shocked, he was still surprised. "Hmm. It's not every day you have a mortal customer around this part of the shop."

"I can't imagine why…" Falco added sarcastically.

Revealing the many weapons he had stored away, the fox had to veil to cover the doorway they had come through with a thick cloth. Thereafter, he went to open containers, cupboards and briefcases that had weapons put away. "Help yourselves to examine."

The cobalt vixen looked around at the many weapons, both Angel and Demon kind. There were a few firearms, but most interestingly there were the twisted forms of swords, scythes, battle axes and other melee weapons. At first glance, some of these weapons wouldn't be recognisable but they are marked with a note that summarises a short description of the weapon, such as what type of weapon it was and what elements or features it had.

Eventually she found a pistol that looked almost exactly like hers. She drew her own one and compared the weapons, but saw that the pistol in the shop had a slightly different trigger guard and a darker colour palette. It was known as 'Ebony II' and on the side was marked 'From Tony Redgrave'.

'One of the successors to a pair of custom weapons previously made that belonged to the demon hunter Tony Redgrave'

Examining her gun's slide, she noticed that it had a similar mark on the left side which said the same thing. She then examined the other side of the gun which also had the Star Fox logo, but red.

"Ah, I see you've found the gun that Frost asked for."

"Uh-yes…" She compared the two pistols. "Why does it have the same logo as mine?"

"He had me imprint it on the side but in red. It seems as though you had the gun's twin."

"Twin?"

The salesman nodded. "These are Ebony and Ivory, mark II. This was created by a demon hunter known only by the name 'Tony Redgrave'. He however had sold the handguns separately for a high price as he already had his own handguns which are fairly similar."

The weapons matched each other in terms of design principles but there are some differences since the picture on the grip of Ebony II was of a woman with ebony hair. Both feature custom sight systems; Ebony uses a set of target sights, while Ivory uses a pair of combat sights. Both feature ported muzzle compensators that should reduce recoil and counteract muzzle flip. Both barrels are extend through the compensators and are ported to match the cuts in the compensators. Both guns also seem to have reinforced slides and both feature double stack magazines with thick slam pads. Both have gold-plated magazine releases, hammers, safety switches and triggers. Ebony featured a hooked, two-handed trigger-guard, while Ivory uses a more traditional rounded trigger-guard and also the ejection port was located on the left, probably to show that this gun was the left handed gun.

"These are really good handguns I presume?" She spun them in hand.

The salesman had his hand out, which asked for one of the weapons. When Kursed handed over Ivory II, he spun the gun before firing at a steel mannequin: the force of the round powered by the energy already found within the weapon had torn through the head and was able to rip apart its reinforced structure. "This was part of a series of handguns that never seemed to fail against a demonic foe." Handing it back, he also gave her a second holster that was similar to the one she already had. The salesman smiled as he satisfied his customer's needs and wants.

The hedgecat found a weapon that would've suited Kursed's fighting style of various martial arts. A pair of gauntlets and greaves named 'Judgement'. They are fingerless and feetless armours that bear the element of Shadow and Light. They are particularly light, but understanding these are Angelic arms, these would be stronger than the conventional mortal made gauntlet and grieves that had been deemed obsolete a very long time ago. Like all the other weapons that had magical properties to them, these had already been tamed of power so that anyone can use it. "Hey Kursed, have a look at these lads."

The blue vixen attended to Gabriel's call. Upon approaching, he offered her a pair of gauntlet and greaves. "For me? You shouldn't have…" She sarcastically said.

"Well go on, try them on." He urged.

It wasn't difficult to slip on the armour like limbs, and surprisingly it was comfortable and flexible enough that she still had a lot of freedom with her arms and legs. "Comfortable." She complimented. Eventually she started to feel a powerful energy overwhelm her senses, a hot fire burning within her wanting to spread. There was no pain, but there was only the odd feeling that numbed her physical body, but affected the spirit within the shell.

Finally, the weapon's power had been unlocked, and from them protruded light and darkness from gauntlet and greaves respectfully.

"You look ready for a fight."

"I wonder what these two can do." The possibilities with such a powerful weapon were endless. She hoped that it would help her on the task ahead.

Lombardi had examined many of the weapons in the shop and was impressed at the collection, but rather was interested at how Kursed took control of her weapons so quickly. A mere mortal would take longer to take control of the power of such weapons regardless whether they were tamed or not.

But he had to consider she wasn't a normal mortal as she was able to read minds and sense thought patterns of the weak or reckless minded. Another thing that he remembered was the fact that she once allowed a Krazoa spirit to take shelter within her body, and she was able to release it.

Krazoa spirits were created by Angels to help balance the stability of Sauria, which could not physically keep itself together without support. Angels created the spirits as a magical coating to the planet. Since most of the Krazoa spirits had been stolen, Guardian Angels have been sent to occupy the planet for the time being until more Krazoa spirits can be made. The spirit itself contained a lot of powerful magic that only can be wielded by those with potential, both good and evil.

Some Wandering Demons have also been travelled to Sauria, so as to dedicate themselves to help the Guardian Angels protect it.

He wondered however whether Fox had any potential to control such power, since he had absorbed multiple Krazoa spirits. Whenever one leaves the shelter of a body, they leave a trail of dormant power. It is probably why Kursed was so compatible with the power of the Angelic arm she wielded.

"So, is that all?"

Gabriel agreed. "So, name your price."

The two privately negotiated a price for the equipment that they were willing to buy. They concluded a deal of ten-thousand bits, to which, Gabriel agreed. Paying cash up front, the red fox smiled. "Come back anytime. I can propose a deal whenever you see fit."

The trio left the shop, and the red fox returned to his stall to sell fresh meat once again. They walked through the crowded market street.

Having absorbed her weapon to temporary conceal it from view, she asked Gabriel: "Why did you have to pay for the weapons?"

"Well lass, everyone has to make a business. Some Preternaturals do the normal jobs, like office jobs or selling meat, others do the more underground eyes-only jobs to make a business." For the most part, the mix-bred mercenary found the price of the weapons a treat, since most Angelic and Demonic arms sellers would have sold for a higher price, but hence why this one was recommended out of all the others in the Lylat System. "We should get moving."

Making their way back to the docking station by having their escort transport them back, they were halted by security. It seemed as though the facility was on high alert as soldiers were seen entering the docking areas in standard two-by-two formations.

"Hold on, this facility is off limits for the time being."

"What's going on?" Lombardi asked.

The guard explained that there were Venomian Infiltrators within the facility and that it was on lockdown until they are dispatched. The pheasant showed that he was a Cornerian Military Lieutenant and that he and the other two should enter the site and access the situation themselves. The guards, of Cornerian affiliation, could not step down from order of a high ranking officer, and so they allowed them in. "A recon team went in earlier."

"Looks like fun, eh Frost?" Lombardi commented. He drew his MP7 PDW and bolted the charging handle to ready it for combat.

Kursed also drew her MP7. "Why do you think the Venomians are here?"

"We're about to find out."

The guards opened the shutters for them and allowed them to proceed before shutting it as they entered. Cautious about his surroundings, Gabriel was first to proceed. The many ships and machinery parts were perfect spots to ambush them.

After stepping in to the open, he found relief that there was no gunfire towards him. He then noticed a trail of blood, and curious, he followed its lead until he found bodies of both Venomian infiltrators and Cornerian royal guard. It seemed as though their bodies were eviscerated, and both fired weapons but not at each other. The mercenary held his hand close to one of the gun's barrel and noticed how it was still warm. It was perplexing because the bodies seemed as though they had been left here for weeks.

Whistling, he called for his team. The pheasant and vixen closed in, but both found the site of the disembowelled bodies disgusting.

Kursed however couldn't help but find it a little funny that Gabriel could still keep a straight face as he touched the bloody remnants of soldiers. "That's disgusting." She commented without the tone of disgust.

"Something clawed their way through them." Falco added as he took a closer look at the bodies. "Demons?"

Frost shook his head. "A demon would kill you straight unless they were crazy. Most demons are like animals acting on instinct. These guys were fighting something, and they fought a lone target. This is something else." He believed that a high class demon could have been responsible for such mutilated corpses, since they were capable of advanced thought. There weren't any bodies of low class demons, so it was the only suspicion he had.

When a pile of barrels were knocked down, the three all raised their arms. "Bastard's a fast one." Falco complimented.

The creature sped around the docking hangar, and none of the three were able to pin-point it in time to attack.

Eventually, Gabriel thought that they'd stand a chance should he stand in the open and so ran into the open to be a sitting duck and lure his enemy out. Finally able to pin-point his target, he fired a well-placed shot at his adversary.

Falco and Kursed fired at the target as he was stunned until they spent every last bullet in their respective magazines. None of the shots were effective as the hostile target stood. The vixen gasped as she realised who she had shot at.

Falco couldn't believe it neither. "Son of a bitch."

"Panther…?" Kursed breathed. When she saw a devilish smile upon his lips, she felt anger build up within her. Throwing aside her MP7 and drawing her two handguns, she fired them in rapid succession.

The shots from her new weapons actually stumbled him as each shot carried a powerful aura that reinforced its strength.

Falco was about to help but the hedgecat held him back. "This is her fight, don't interfere."

Confident in Frost's advice, he stayed away from the fight but both were ready should she be in trouble.

Her anger allowed her to release the power within, and her gauntlets and greaves had responded to her request of a powerful weapon.

Throwing a punch, Panther was able to time his counter and take hold of her attack. "Well, fancy meeting such a beauty like you here."

"Hands off, demon!" She threw him off and roundhouse kicked him to create breathing room between the both of them. "So you're a demon huh?"

"It's not my fault. I was born one." But he chuckled. "But even so, I am a being of such divine power. My soul is stronger than yours can ever be." He taunted.

"Your soul is corrupt and evil!"

"But you are worse. I kill, and that's the worst I can do, but not only do you kill but you are capable of harming the feelings of others. You changed the many lives and ruined some." He berated as he threw a punch.

Managing to block the attack, she held back Caroso with all her strength. His demonic strength however was barely matched by the magical strength of the armours of her limbs.

"Your death would be a God send to McCloud. You destroyed his life when you left him to rot alone. You betrayed him; you were the laughing stock of the Lylat System. It is you who should be in his place, rotting in his cell." He reminded Kursed of her actions, her sins that she cannot hope to amend…

"Don't listen to him lassie!" Gabriel tried to keep morale for Kursed up. "You came back to fix it all, you didn't leave him, not forever!"

"I can't…!" She cried, feeling weak and helpless.

"When this is over, I'll bring you to him, and I'll make you watch as Andross turns him into one of us…"

Her heart pounded in anger as her disdain was instead overwhelmed by rage. Strengthened to continue the fight, she threw him off. "I won't fail him like I did last time. My soul is to him and to him only!" She pointed towards him, as if she was accusing him. "And now… My soul, is saying it wants to stop you!"

Mockingly he laughed at the vixen. "I'm afraid our souls are at odd Krystal… Because you loved me… Can't you remember? I was your first."

"And you'll be the first on my death wish list! Normally I get paid for killing, but for you, it's free of charge!" She rushed at him and threw a powerful punch. The power of her gauntlet served to only improve her attack strength.

Though Caroso was able to block the attack, Kursed threw more attacks in rapid succession, however neither of the thrown blows made contact. He tried to throw attacks but as well, they were blocked. He then threw a powerful punch which made contact to a similar punch that the vixen threw, and the overcharge of kinetic force broke them apart.

"Not bad for a mortal!" He attacked once again but struck her upon the face, sending her across the hangar.

Kursed landed on the floor, partially dazed, she forced herself to her feet. "Ngh… That wanker…"

Panther struck again as he held her by the neck and lifted her above the ground. "You're trying my patience!" He did not put any effort or strength to hold her in the air. "Do I have to kill you!?"

"Better than having your hands on me!" She drew Ebony and fired it at Panther. Though he wasn't killed, the shots had stumbled him. Noticing that he wore bullet resistant armour that was coated with energy, she knew her handguns could do little the fact she had no true power to boost its effectiveness.

"Let's even the odds! Kursed!" Falco threw his katana to the cobalt vixen.

She caught the weapon from the handle and felt the energy surging within it. "Such power…" She whispered to herself. Holding the weapon from its scabbard, she pointed the end of it at Panther. A smile curved upon her mouth.

"Your smile is beautiful, too bad it'll be the last smile you'll have."

With all his energy, he sped around her. She could not see much of him besides blurs, as he was too fast for the mortal eye to see. Unable to rely on sight, she let instinct take over as she closed her eyes. Brute strength and speed alone doesn't win the fight as she had learned. Patience…

For a long time her patience had been shortened as she could not accept her failures, her wrongs to the Star Fox team… She wanted to find that little bit of inner peace… Knowing that Fox's life is now at stake, her only thought was: "Fox…"

Still trying to figure out how to assemble some of the weapons, Krystal could only rely on Fox's help. She struggled and even tried to force parts in. "This is dire…" She said to herself.

"Oh Krystal…" Fox commented.

She was fairly new to the team, and for the most part she was still getting used to their busy lifestyle. Though they were able to get the money and find a repair station, they still had to do it themselves for the most part. Weapons also needed some maintenance and so she volunteered to help, but found it a little more difficult than planned.

"Patience is a virtue."

"I was patient until I had to do this." She responded.

Taking the parts, he decided to demonstrate for her. "Here, let me show you." He slowly assembled a weapon in front of her but took his time.

Krystal found it interesting to see the vulpine take his time despite the many weapons they had to disassemble and reassemble. "How can you be so… Patient about all of the work?"

The vulpine finished demonstrating what he had to do. Since he had nothing else to help with, he sided with Krystal in weapons maintenance. "You know. There are certain times you'll get angry and others where getting angry will just hinder your sense of judgement."

"Really?" She had heard that idea before, but most of the time she ignored the principle as she never found herself falling impatient with anything. The change of organic lifestyle was a huge step in her life but regardless, she hoped that Fox would be able to keep her sane from anything that could drive someone crazy.

"My father told me that 'Inner peace is key to victory in a reckless battlefield…'"

Though she was unable to see him because of how fast he was, she could hear his thought patterns. She couldn't have read them in an angry state, and now that she is calmer, she felt more capable of fighting Caroso.

Timing her strike with what she knew of his thoughts, she managed to parry his fast attack and hit him with the sheathed blade. Though it didn't stop him, she at least countered his attack.

Drawing a red rose, he threw it on the ground.

Kursed knew what he was about to do… She knew that Panther was always obsessed with his saying: "All who see my rose meet death…" She chanted. Sensing his thought in the nick of time, she was able to counter a probably fatal attack as he was about to attack from behind. Drawing the blade from its sheath, she cut through his protective armour and slashed him across the chest.

Though not a serious cut, Caroso still retreated from any further attack so as to examine the wound. With the armour he wore cut, much to his surprise, he looked at the katana the blue vixen wielded. His red blood dripped and ran down the blade, and from how it looks, it was sharper and stronger than any other katana he had ever seen.

"Courtesy of Falco Lombardi." She commented before swinging the blade right to force the blood off of it. Pointing the sharp end of the curved, guard-less blade, she vowed: "Let's finish this, even if it means killing you."

"You couldn't kill a lover… Could you?" He taunted. Tearing off the armour plate from his chest and throwing it aside, he charged once more, this time, armed with a sword of his own.

The two kept swinging and throwing their arms side to side, hoping to slash at the other. Neither of them could as their attacks always blocked or was deflected. Panther was able to slash at her back and cut her, but Kursed persisted against the pain but it hindered her combat ability and vitality.

Eventually, the cobalt blue vixen saw an opportunity as Caroso leaped into the air to drive her sword into her. Deflecting the pointing arm, she spun around and switched how she held the blade to the sharp edge pointing to her elbow, and with the curved sharp edge, cut through her opponent.

Panther tried to stand upright, but he felt pain below his chest. Holding the now profusely bleeding cut, he kneeled down on the ground.

The bounty hunter drew Ivory II, and closed in on the weakened Star Wolf member. Pressing the gun against his forehead, she felt like she could just kill him right there… But not today… Instead, she pointed the gun besides him and fired right next to his ear until each and every round in the magazine was spent. As the gun clicked empty, she holstered the pistol.

"Why…?"

"Death is too good for you. Killing you won't make me happier…" But instead she punched him with the gauntlet in hand, knocking him down. "But that… felt good."

Falco clapped for Kursed. "Bravo Kursed. Nice work."

Throwing the blade to the pheasant, she smiled as she felt victorious. For the meantime, she can feel a little bit more relief from the haunting past. "So what do we do with him?"

Gabriel marked the unconscious Panther with a black marker around his chest, to which the symbol he drew glowed. "This will beacon any nearby policing Preternaturals to have him arrested." He stood and used a radio he found still intact from one of the dead recon team members and contacted the Guards to notify that the area is secure. He prompt them to allow his ship to be unlocked from its docking station and that he'll be leaving.

"Well Kursed. You're one step closer to conquering the past. You ready for Venom?" Falco asked.

She nodded but then stopped for a moment. Should she keep the name she had adapted herself to as she left the Lylat System and more specifically, both Star Fox and Star Wolf? "Falco… I'd like you to call me Krystal again."

The pheasant folded his arms but nodded in acknowledgement. "You're better off with the old name."

Returning to the ship, Gabriel had put away all the non-Angelic and Demonic arms but then noticed a weapon that was on the floor. Picking it up, he realised it was a staff of mystic power. He had found this during a scavenger hunt, and he was lucky enough to find the remnants of the Great Fox floating in space. Somehow, this was the only thing that survived the destruction of the ship and the Aparoid planet.

He could only guess who it belonged to since had Cerenian text on the side that read: "Forever I love McCloud…" The staff was full of power but he could never bring himself to use it. Instead he put it in storage so that it couldn't be damaged.

Leaving the Armoury, he made his way to Krystal who was in the medical bay due to her cuts and wounds she suffered on Macbeth. Entering, he noticed how Falco was able to keep the vixen quiet and not pain her any more than she is. "These are pretty bad cuts. You should be glad we were close to the ship when you got these." After disinfecting the wound with alcohol, he used a can of 'Quick clotting cream' to help seal up the wound before dressing it. "There we go."

"Thanks Falco."

Putting away all the tools and equipment, he took a lollipop from a container. "Now go play." He said sarcastically.

The vixen chuckled but still accepted the sweet. "I'm not one to turn down the offer of a sweetie." She stood and turned to see Gabriel, who held a familiar staff. When she saw the Cerenian writing on it, carved in purple, she knew it was exactly what she thought…

"I thought I'd give this back. I found this on a scavenger expedition floating near the location of the destroyed Aparoid planet."

She had few words to say… "My staff…" Taking it from Gabriel who handed it over, she slowly examined it. She couldn't believe how it survived such an explosion, especially from a whole planet.

But the most important detail about it was what the Cerenian text said… "Forever I love…" Memories of the past came crashing down in waves that she could barely handle herself in… She sobbed as tears ran down her cheeks and she cried out: "Fox!" Falling to her knees, she felt the pain she had left behind…

Falco sighed in sadness as he missed Fox as well. He never admitted how McCloud was his most trusted childhood friend.

After a few moments of watching Krystal cry to her hearts content, Gabriel scoffed. "Alright, that's enough of that. We're setting down on Venom, today!" He couldn't stand to see anyone close to him cry in distraught. "We're gonna set down on that shietey planet and we're gonna pound their shietey base and we're gonna go in there and pull Fox out!"

Drying her tears, she felt a sense of courage fill her. She realised that her key to saving her lifemate was to brave the fear of rejection… Her trusted lover. Her only lover… Could never say no to her.

The trio made their way to the command deck, where they had received a transmission from an old friend. Slippy Toad. "Hey there. Falco! Krystal!" Though Slippy had a bit of a slow mind and was naïve at times during his younger ages, he had matured into a very important scientist of the Cornerian army and hacker. He hadn't forgotten about his friends who he hadn't seen for quite some time.

It was surprising that Krystal was actually remembered by someone she knew before. Falco and Fox didn't recognise her.

"Slippy, you son-of-a-bitch!" Falco said endearingly. "So what's the amphibian been up to?"

"Well, I've managed to bypass Venom's firewall and get information upon the blueprints to an underground laboratory. I'm sending you the data as we speak."

Checking the data on his PDA, Gabriel gave thumbs up to Slippy. "Nice."

"I'll contact Peppy and give word on your Assault. Keep in touch for any changes."

"Will do."

"Slippy, out!" The transmission went offline.

Gabriel looked towards the other two and smirked. "Who's up for an Assault?"

_**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN STAR FOX (or any materials that you may notice of Copyright, such as Ebony and Ivory)  
Enjoy, rate, review**_


	7. Chapter 7: Reconciliation

The ship was taking a lot of Anti-Ship fire from the ground mounted Angled Particle Canons. However, the ship had copious amounts of shield energy to spare before it lands. Having set the ship to auto-pilot, the heroic trio (and most likely insane) took all the weapons they needed before they went to the back door exit/entrance. The idea was to have the ship fly away from Venom's orbit and land on Corneria by taking worm-hole shortcuts.

The ship had all the worm-holes mapped into its GPS. Gabriel had also notified Slippy of the plan and that the idea was to have someone pick them up. It wouldn't take long to return to Corneria through the hidden shortcuts that most fliers know nothing about.

"Are you sure this is a good idea!?" Krystal asked, nervous since there was a lot of anti-air fire.

Instead of answering, Gabriel and Falco had already jumped as the ship began to turn away. Following after them, she dived out the ship and before the door began to close on her, ignoring the dangers ahead. Continuing to dive, they hoped to land just within the Venomian base perimeter.

"Keep it up lads! Don't stop!"

Eventually they closed in on the ground, but were still being fired at. Falco and Frost sprung out their respective white and black Angel wings, whilst they caught Krystal so that she'd land with them. Making it to the ground, it was already a showdown. The Angels retracted their wings and took cover behind some metallic supply crates, whilst the former Bounty Hunter made quickly made her way to a mounted gun. She opened fire at the Venomian defenders with her huge weapon.

Falco supported with some suppressing fire, whilst Gabriel whipped out his personal HK-417 Battle Rifle. Falco did drop a few of the Venomians but Gabriel was always on point with every shot he fired. He truly was a sniper.

"The shots would've attracted attention."

"We didn't exactly come quietly!" Krystal responded.

Though the entrance to the underground lab was sealed, it wasn't magically treated. Falco cleared the way by slicing through the reinforced door with his Angelic katana. "Care to do the honours?"

Gabriel nodded. "With pleasure." He dashed at the door and kicked through it with powerful force. The debris of the cut slabs of metal incapacitated some of the guards who tried to hold their ground. They were not fast enough to aim their weapons as fast as how the trio drew sidearms to shoot them down.

With Ebony and Ivory in hand, Krystal entered guns blazing. The compensators and the heavier barrel allowed her to fire the guns rapidly without losing control of them. Gabriel and Falco returned to their primary weapons and fired with the vixen.

Eventually they had fought their way to the primary observation balcony, where they had a vantage point over most of the primary lab. Gabriel attached a bipod to his rifle and an ACOG sight. "I'll provide cover, get down there!"

They were attacked by a barrage of gunfire coming from Venomian guards and scientist who were determined to defend the laboratory. Throwing a flashbang, he blinded and distracted the attacking hostiles. Having cleared a path for Falco and Krystal, he ordered them to go ahead whilst he holds them off.

"We're not leaving without you!"

"It's me or Fox, lassie!" Mounting his rifle on the balcony, since it was covered by steel, he didn't particularly worry of incoming fire. He kept the attention and aggro on him as the other two had passed through to where they had to go.

"Release the demons!" One of the scientists urged. A guard rushed to the emergency release button and pressed it before he was shot down. None of the soldiers could survive against a superior fighter like Gabriel.

"Bugger!" Realising that the main floor of the laboratory also had many capsules containing low level demons like the capsules in Titania, he smirked. "This'll fun."

Most of the demons were low level Stygian, and Gabriel knew that they were easy to dispatch with any conventional weapon. "Come on ya bastirts!" He stood and fired his gun from the shoulder, and shot down the armed guards and scientists. Despite their numbers, they were easily dispatched as they couldn't shoot him even when he was reloading.

As the Stygian awoke and realised that Gabriel was an Angel, they charged at him. Though Stygian are primarily humanoid in appearance, they have more tougher skin which would be difficult to penetrate with weaker handgun cartridges or blaster shots, and their left arm is usually integrated with their weapon of choice, a forged blade. They were tougher and faster, and can perform superior feats that most mortals aren't capable of.

Most of them didn't find it difficult to get to Gabriel in short time.

The hedgecat wouldn't go down without a fight, and wasn't going down at all. Knocking down the closest one with the stock of his gun, he opened fire at others who jumped in. Though the Stygian had superior endurance and armoured skin that a mortal does not usually have, a 7.62x51 round is tough enough to make small work.

Slowly backing up, he kept his distance from the Stygian horde who tried to overwhelm him, but he kept shooting them down.

Some of the Stygian demons attacked from under the balcony, and eventually, Gabriel had to jump away from the attacking creatures. Running out of ammo, he threw aside the rifle and switched to his second rifle, an AKS-74U, loaded with drum magazines. Pulling the charging handle, he opened fire and sprayed through the enemies. Realising he'd be a sitting duck if they corner him from both sides, he jumped off the balcony to the mostly open area of the ground floor.

The Stygian followed but many more of them were torn apart by the rifle fire. But like his other rifle, he was to run out of ammunition. Throwing this weapon aside he quickly switched to his Angelic survival axe. The blade was sharper and impervious to conventional damage, coated with an Angelic aura; it makes this the perfect weapon for demon slaying.

Whilst his firearms made it easy to mow down crowds of the low level demons, it was easier to kill them with the axe since it didn't take as long to cut a demon dead than to shoot one multiple times.

Being able to dodge every attack thrown at him, he threw his axe at one of the other demons. Though not able to retrieve it, he could easily stand the fiends with his kicks. Kicking one away with a powerful thrust, he knocked down multiple demons in one go. "Who's next!?"

More capsules were broken open as the Elite Stygian were awakened by the loud gunfire. Their blades were less sharper but had thorn like protrusions for a more grotesque appearance. The Elite Stygian were fitted with harder skin armour for better survival against firearms. Having managed to avoid any of their charges and swings, Gabriel continued the fight.

He was a one man army, not intimidated by anything. Surely a bunch of Stygians, regardless of their rank, couldn't touch him.

* * *

Falco cut down another door, before kicking it open. Entering with Krystal to accompany him, they raised arms and examined the area round them. Though there weren't any enemies, it seemed to be a large area fitted with all sorts of training devices. Most of the devices were initially designed as a private course for elite soldiers.

There would short distance machine based assault courses, automatic targeting sentry guns and other athletic equipment.

"Someone's been a little busy in the work out station." Lombardi noticed how one of the machines was destroyed, though the dents indicate it couldn't have been from gunfire of the sort, neither was there any soot or powder burns.

The cobalt vixen felt a strange energy that felt familiar, but also somewhat dangerous. Taking her staff out, she held on to it tightly as the feeling of that being's presence became stronger. "Something was here… And it's coming for us…"

Putting aside his gun, he held the scabbard and handle of his katana and readied himself for the possible encounter. "Alright. Let's do this."

A figure entered from a dark hallway; slowly he approached, dragging a large blade with him. The figure had red glowing eyes that barely illuminated his face… The dragging of his weapon screeched loudly, almost unnerving…

Neither of the two could tell who it was… Until the figure came closer towards the light of the room. His features were undeniably there, unchanged from her imagination and memories… But the eyes were devil red… Surrounded by a red aura, and wielding a large and blood stained blade, he who stood before them was Fox McCloud himself.

"My God…" Falco said quietly as he felt the grip of his hands on his weapon loosen. He was as he looked before, but the eyes told him that his blood was tainted by the blood of demons… Fox was a demon. "It can't be…" He couldn't believe it, but he couldn't look away from the heavy breathing vulpine.

"Fox…" She felt sickened… "What… What did Andross do to you…?" They did worse than harm him: they changed him… But she couldn't look away. She promised that she'd save him, by any means.

McCloud, upon spotting the duo, increased his walking speed to jogging and then to sprinting, dragging the large blade behind him. Blinded by animal rage, he charged recklessly and swung his blade at the two.

Managing to deflect the attack with her staff, she jumped away. "We're not here to fight you!"

McCloud didn't listen, nor did he hear her words. He engaged with Falco who locked him by blades. The two struggled to fight over dominance, but both were almost equal but McCloud was stronger. Before Fox could win the struggle, Krystal jumped on the vulpine's back and held him by the throat, trying to pull him away from Falco.

"Ngh! Damn, you fight like a bear!" His strength was far superior to hers but it didn't mean she couldn't affect his balance. "Fox, snap out of it! It's us!" She was thrown off after managing to distract him for a while.

The pheasant engaged again with the vulpine. Though he wasn't as strong, he was fast and his katana's scabbard proved an effective shield against McCloud's attacks. Deflecting another attack, he countered by hitting him with the handle of his sword. "Yeah! That's how it happens!" Just as he winded him, the vulpine regained control of the situation as he threw a powerful punch that caught the Lieutenant off guard, sending him flying across the room. Landing next to weights, he shook his head as he tried to shake off the daze. "Ouch…"

Holding her own, the former bounty hunter used her staff to keep the vulpine at bay. "Fox! Stop!" She didn't want to, but she struck him across the face with her indestructible staff.

Angered, he used the back of his hand to knock her down. Just as he was to attack her, a heavy weight for a barbell at him. Though it didn't keep him down, it did force a temporary retreat.

Lombardi was hoping to catch Fox's attention. As he did have it, he continued to kick barbell weights at McCloud. The vulpine blocked any incoming weights and cut a few, and recklessly charged as the pheasant ran out of things to kick at him. It wasn't all lost as he was able to dodge the attack and taunt at him. "Come on!"

Gabriel had caught up with the other two as he managed to slay all the Stygian thrown at him. They were fairly easy to deal with.

Examining the situation, he realised that Fox is under a mind control spell. The magical energy flowing around him entrapped his will. He had to intervene, they couldn't kill him. "Falco! Hold him back!"

The vulpine countered an attack from Krystal by throwing his blade at her, which was able to cut her from her abdomen. Holding the bleeding wound, she sat back, panting for air. She knew her cut was bad and bleeding profusely…

"Are you ai'ght?"

She only nodded but hid the cut away from the other two's view.

The lieutenant was able to hold McCloud back for Frost to do what he needed to do. He knew that Frost was able to go into one's mind but they had to look deep into each other's eyes. Many Angels had this ability, and usually they use to help break any form of suppressed will to save the person from mind control, but often there was a catch: Most people who are mind controlled would have demons spawn in their mind to protect the inner mind from free will.

The hedgecat was able to make eye contact with McCloud, and he stopped struggling… His own vision faded as he was able to enter his mind…

* * *

Looking around, he realised he was in McCloud's mind, which was almost full of space. Random bits of debris, fragments of buildings and ships. Luckily he was able to conjure up his weapons in the dream world and so he spawned his trusty survival axe and sniper rifle. Seeing a light from afar, he used his sniper rifle to zoom in. His scope revealed that Fox was trapped behind a magical web that glowed brightly.

Jumping from debris to junk parts of arwings and ships, he tried to make his way to the entrapped Fox. Landing on a large area of ground, more stygian spawned to try and stop him. "Outta my way you blighting bastirts!" Using his oversized Barret M82, he blew apart the creatures that stood in his way. As his gun clicked empty, he threw it aside and proceeded to run towards Fox.

He didn't have time to waste, because the demons would keep spawning in and flood his chances to save McCloud.

Using his axe, he cut through the demons but they were hording fast. Eventually they managed to hold him off from Fox. He wasn't too far but to save him now would be dangerous, as dying in a dream world would kill him in the real world. "Hey! You bastirt! Wake up!" He shouted.

Fighting with the creatures earlier had an impact on how much he could fight now. He could barely hold his own against such a large horde.

Seeing the vulpine wake from unconsciousness, he watched as the hedgecat fought against the stygian. He couldn't tell who he was and he was far too weak. His vision was blurred; he was tired from the entire web that held him. He had no will to his own body.

But he had to fight for his freedom… Able to shift his left arm which was loose from its captive web ensnarement but as much as he tried to pull himself free, he had not the strength to do so. "Ngh… I can't…"

"Come on lad! Do it for Krystal!" Stygians were able to hold him back, and he couldn't free himself. Instead he threw his axe to the vulpine.

Hearing the name, he felt a sense of determination revive him. Catching the axe, the weapon glowed brightly, and both of their visions were blinded by a flash of brilliance…

* * *

The trance was over and the both of them fell to their knees. Frost however assured that he was fine to Lombardi who at first was to aid him. He stood, panting for some air. Making his way to the fox, he felt the energy that trapped his will dissipate. Looking at his eyes however, he confirmed that McCloud was indeed converted into a demon. "He's a demon by blood…"

Regaining consciousness, he looked around the room. He recognised the hedgecat after a moment. "Frost…? What… What happened?" He couldn't tell. When he saw Falco and Frost, he shook his head, hoping that he wasn't seeing a mirage. "Falco…?"

"Yo." He responded.

Turning to his side, he saw Krystal. He didn't recognise her at first but the features were so familiar to someone. "Ugh…" He groaned as he began to regain control of his weakened body. Seeing her stand and walk towards him, he had the notion that she already knew him, although she was holding her stomach as if she ate something bad. "You look… So familiar…"

Frost and Falco helped the vulpine up to his feet. "Don't you remember her?"

"Do I know her…?" He asked, still partially dazed from all that happened.

The cobalt vixen approached, still holding her stomach. "Fox… It's me, Krystal." She claimed. She knew she was Krystal, and now that'll be the only name she'll accept as her true name. Never again will she change her identity for her own petty feelings, for she has a purpose to be in Lylat once again. Why would she leave the only home she had? Why should she leave it when someone who cared about her the most lived here and waited long enough…

His eyes widened in shock. He couldn't believe it. For many years she had been missing, and he had tried so hard to find her. The vulpine still loved her even when she betrayed his trust, but she had come back. Her features had not changed from the last encounter, though there was a small but barely noticeable scar on her cheek. "I can't believe it." She had returned to him… But why?

Though she couldn't read his mind, she had the idea she had to of had a reason to return. Truthfully, she wanted to return to the Lylat System to make things right, and not just for the money. "Fox… I've missed you, for a long time I've denied that the feeling was there. I've come to realise that… You… You're my lifemate, my true love."

He blinked, staring at her idly for a moment… Then he acknowledged everything she had said, and nodded. A smile curved upon his face, and tears ran down his cheeks. "Krystal… I thought I lost you for all these years… I didn't want to live anymore without you."

"But you have me now… You… You have me…" She felt her body weaken… She should have told the other two of her wound… But now she will suffer for it. The only thing she could do was kiss him passionately. As the two broke the kiss, she lowered her arm to show the bleeding cut, and fell to the floor.

Startling the other three, they kneeled down to examine her. It panicked McCloud as he saw her bleed. "Krystal!? Krystal!"

"I… I love you…" She declared. "Do you love me?"

He didn't know what to do, but the only thing he could do was cradle her in his arms as he said the same words he had said before.

Finished packing her bags, she felt Fox's presence. "I'm sorry…" Krystal said, turning her to the vulpine. "I'll be leaving for Star Wolf tomorrow…" She responded.

"It's not that I don't love you, but it's for your own safety I'm discharging you from the team. But please, don't go to 'him'." He begged.

"Fox, I can handle my own but you can't seem to understand that! I am not a damsel in distress!"

"Had I not saved you from Sauria, you would be dead by now!" He shouted.

The vixen struck him across the face before storming out the room.

"Krystal… I love you…" He whispered…

"Krystal… I love you…" He whispered to her ear.

Death was approaching her. She couldn't see much now, nor feel the pain that was in her body. She was saddened that she would not have the happily ever after, but she was glad that they do truly love each other… He vision blackened…

Falco and Gabriel stood up. They had worked so hard to get to where they are now… Neither of the two would give up now. "Fox. We can get her out of here and save her. We can't waste time now."

McCloud agreed, and with revived strength, carried Krystal like a damsel in distress. He had her arms wrap around his neck as he stood up.

Just as they were about to leave, the ground shook violently. Gabriel knew that it was danger… "Get out of here, NOW!" He picked up the rifle that Lombardi dropped and pulled the charging handle. "Go!" He begged.

"We're not leaving without you!" Lombardi declared.

"I'll catch up, the ship should be on its way, get the fock out of here lad!" Firing down the hallway that Fox came from, he attempted to hold off a powerful demon alone.

Though reluctant, the pheasant and the vulpine retreated and made their way out of the laboratory.

Left alone, he stood strong and was not intimidated by the mysterious foe. As a large crystal shard was thrown at him, he reacted quickly and dodged the attack. More shards sprung up from the ground, but Magilligan thought fast and dodged each and every one. He had to leave, as the situation was beyond his control.

Dodging and moving out of the way of shards, he eventually dodged a larger shard from which Andrew Oikonny. Breaking from the shard, he laughed manically. "Stop right there Angel, for you have intervened with my Uncle's plot!"

"Oikonny, aren't you supposed to be dead?"

"I almost died in Fortuna, but don't be fooled, I have returned! And more powerful than ever!" He used his hands to summon more crystal shards to try and impale Magilligan. "Stay still you dog!"

Able to dodge the attacks, he eventually got the upper hand as he jumped over the foolish ape. "Bloody pie monkey!" Using the stock of the rifle, he knocked down Andrew with enough force to actually leave him unconscious. "For a demon with power, you have no bloody technique." He wouldn't stay down for long, and he didn't have time to waste.

Just as he was to leave, he noticed a capsule that trapped a Cornerian affiliate… Dash Bowman, who had been watching the fight the whole time. The glass prevented him from being heard, but he seemed to plea for help. Releasing the capsule lock, he was able to free Dash. "The Cornerians were wondering where you were."

Bowman stood and nodded. "We have to leave. My Grand Father, he's… He's done something to all the poor people he caught… Even me."

"Don't have to explain, but I agree. Let's go."

Just as they were about to leave, Andrew halted them. It split the two apart. Dash knew that neither of them would make it out alive if one didn't distract the annoying Bowman. "Just get out, I'll hold him off for as long as I can!"

"You crazy bastirt! Come on!"

"You have to make sacrifices, and it's definitely not going to be anyone important!" He turned and ran towards Andrew to face him

Unable to stop him, Gabriel instead focused on turning on the self-destruct program of the laboratory facility so that it would burn with all the demons they were working on. If he left it standing, the Venomians would obviously be able to grow a large army in such short time. Finishing entering the code and bypassing the security protocols, he made his way out.

* * *

Falco and Fox made it outside. Krystal was still breathing but her condition had worsened to the put where she seemed pale upon her face. "Stay with me Krystal."

Lombardi looked around for the ship. When he saw it start to descend into the atmosphere, he used his radio to contact the fliers. "It's about time you guys showed up!"

"Sorry, bad traffic. I'll cover you." The voice belonged to Lucy Hare. It was good to have her back. With the ships' oversized weapons it was loaded with, Lucy was able to destroy anti-ship weapons that were placed on the ground. After doing so it continued to descend until it was close to the ground. "Alright, we're good to go guys! Come on!"

The back cargo door opened, Peppy and Slippy were armed and calling for the others. "Get on board! We have to leave!"

The two laid out some covering fire, shooting any Venomian Royalist and demon they see. They were hording and trying to overwhelm them. Falco got on the ship first and helped to get Krystal on board. As Fox got in, he halted the others. "We have to wait for Gabriel!" He couldn't leave behind anyone, not ever. It was his rule to make sure everyone makes it. Though he knew stalling would be dangerous for Krystal, he couldn't leave anyone.

Just as he said that, immediately, the hedgecat burst out from the facility entrance as it exploded, recovering fast from the huge blast and standing proudly with the staff. He looked around and realised that the others had made it. Wasting no time, he rushed towards the hovering ship.

Peppy helped Falco to move the dying vixen to the medical bay, where she'll be safe and away from the on-going gun fight. Katt happened to be there. "Katt, she's dying, we need to help her!" Falco explained.

The pink furred cat quickly took medical supplies from the cabinets and pointed to the bed. "Set her down there!" As they did, she took shots of painkillers like Morphine and sachets of powdered QuickKlot. Setting them on the table besides the bed, she ordered the other two to put pressure on her wounds, which seemed to be a large cut, most likely from a sword, around her abdomen. She poured as much of the haemostatic agent she had around the wound, which did reduce the bleeding, but Krystal's condition wasn't improved, nor had it been great when she arrived. Administering the painkillers, she hoped that it would help.

Still at the door, Slippy threw a spare rifle to Fox, who caught it and held it in hand. The feel of a fresh weapon in hand was nostalgic. Aiming towards the hordes of attacking Venomians and low level demons, he fired a volley of rounds at them. As the hedgecat made it to the cargo door, he helped him up. "Close it! Close the door!"

Slippy mashed the 'CLOSE' button, and the cargo door proceeded to close. "That's it!"

Gabriel stood and rushed to the cockpit, where Lucy was controlling the ship from. Taking the secondary pilot seat, he checked the ship's condition. It wasn't the best of conditions but it was enough to get away from Venom. "Let's get the fock out of here!"

"All engines are go!"

The ship finally ascended from the planet and eventually it sped out of the planet's atmosphere. Though some Venomian arwings made chase, Gabriel was already ahead of the situation. Because the cockpit had primary control of the defensive guns of the ship, he activated them and took control of each and every one. It wasn't long before the rain of laser fire cut down the smaller aircraft. "Like swatting bugs with a machinegun."

Finally able to relax, he laid his head back on his chair. "I'm glad you lot were waiting for the ship. Blood place was a mess."

"Well, the least of your problems had been dealt with."

The mercenary nodded, throwing his hair back, he stood back up. "Take the shortcut back to Corneria." The female rabbit nodded and continued to fly the ship. Making his way to the medical ward, he inspected the situation.

Monroe kept bringing a steady supply of medicines and medical items that could help benefit the mortally wounded vixen… However, the wound was so deep and she had lost a lot of blood, Katt explained her doubt of her chances to live. "It's too serious. I know we have the medical supplies but we don't have blood that she needs… Her condition is growing worse…"

Fox, sitting beside the vixen, felt guilty about her failing body. It was his fault that she was dying, and he couldn't save her… He truly was a devil… He wondered if devils could cry, because he felt his eyes water, and tears had started to run down his cheeks. His vision was flooded, and the only audible voice was sobs for the cobalt vixen.

Peppy folded his arms. "Well… I was hoping that the Star Fox team would get back together… You've found her, but…" He didn't want to make the scene any grimmer.

"The Angels weep for the dead that die for doing nothing wrong…" Falco stated.

There was a moment of silence in the room… But then, like usual, Gabriel broke the silence. "Well she's not dying. Not for anyone here." He opened the freezer where he revealed a blood pack of preserved Angel blood, something that he was finally able to do among others who tried so hard. "It's the one chance we got. If Andross can do it with Demon blood, we can do it with Angelic blood."

The others at first were a bit hesitant. They didn't know whether they could actually help Krystal. No one has ever converted an Angel by blood, because it was near impossible to do so. However, they accepted the risks.

Fox, though knowing he was a demon and that his love for a possible Angel would technically be forbidden due to the mythology of Angels vs Demons in an on-going war, he wanted to have Krystal to himself. He wanted her to be alive because he had waited so long, and she had waited as long as well… They both needed each other.

"It's the one chance. Falco, Peppy, Slippy, everyone, had worked so close with each other. We're all here for one reason… Her... And him" He pointed out. "Falco, you had moved on for the most part but seeing that your friend was in need and understanding how much he was a mess without his other half, you came along on this trip. You even understood from Krystal's point of view why she left, and yet you still forgave her."

"Because I knew she would kick some sense into McCloud." He commented.

Gabriel turned to Peppy. "Peppy. When Fox began to act like an arse, you tried to look for Kyrstal yourself. You hired me to help, and even though you said I shouldn't try anymore, I kept going because I knew I'd be able to sort everything out."

"You barely know us, yet you're already a close friend."

Finally he talked to Fox directly. "It's a bit weird… Why would I want to help? It's not my business as they would say… But if I'm going to have to watch friends grow apart and men and women go crazy without their happiness then I'm not gonna sit around. When I found her, we started as business partners… Eventually she felt like a little sister to me. If I had siblings, I would've made sure they were happy, and that's what Krystal evolved to."

"Thank you… For bringing her to me… I couldn't be any more thankful than I am right now." He shot a glance to the sleeping Krystal. "But… I'm scared."

"We all are… But it's a gamble I'm willing to take. It's either we save her now, or fail. There is no try…" Connecting the blood pack to a blood pack unit stand, he had Katt to insert the receiving end to Krystal's arm…

"God speed…" Peppy commented.

* * *

Was it morning? Krystal couldn't tell… Slowly sitting up, she awoke in a small trailer like home, although it was a fairly modern trailer loaded with good technology and décor. It felt more like a small home. She couldn't remember what had happened for the past few hours, or at least she thought she couldn't. She had a dream that she had found Fox.

But he had harmed her against his will, cutting her around her abdomen. Checking around her stomach area, she saw that she had no such cuts. Maybe it was all just a dream. Thinking was beginning to hurt her head, so she relaxed herself in her bed, but it was more comfortable than usual, and soft… Soft like feathers… Feathers…?

She sat back up and felt her back, and she felt those feathers… They formed wings… Angel wings… "Oh God…" She didn't know what to say at this point… They felt like an extra pair of handless arms as she managed to take a closer look at them. It felt fairly natural being able to control them, which is fairly odd since she just recently got them. The question was: how did she get them? She was no Angel, that was for sure.

She got up from her bed and looked at her wings through a reflection from the mirror stand. The wings are a lighter shade of blue, but they suited her cobalt fur. "Huh…" Taking a look at the window, she saw carnival rides and stalls. "Oh, the Cornerian Capital Carnival?" She had been here a couple of times with Fox, often enjoying the rides and having fun with the others.

Realising that this was one of the staff trailers she fell asleep in. She wondered out of any of her team mates who accommodated themselves here. Finding a picture frame of Frost, a woman and a teenage looking girl, she realised she was in his trailer. A good one at that…

The door opened behind her, and from the reflection, she saw Fox and Frost with a tray of breakfast. It was breakfast in bed, for her.

"Oh, you're awake." Frost commented. When he saw the two foxes stare into each other's eyes, as if they had both seen a ghost, he decided to leave the trays on the dining table. "I'll just leave you lot to it." He left without saying another word, closing the door behind him.

There was a silence between the two… It annoyed Krystal fairly much, and she decided to break the silence. "I was worried about you." She said softly. At first, she didn't give a damn when she returned, but it was there… The feeling of wonder, curiosity about someone you truly care about. She can never deny the fact she thought about McCloud, even as Kursed.

"I worried for you more when you almost died… I can't live a world without you."

There was another silence… It built a tension between them. She took note that Fox still loved her… She couldn't deny any more that she still loved him. Flinging herself on to him, she pulled him in to a passionate kiss. Though it caught him off guard, he eventually got into the spirit as he held her tightly against her.

Their tongues fought against each other, trying to dominate the other but neither could overpower one another.

They broke the kiss for a moment but McCloud continued to press his lips upon the vixen's neck, almost possessively.

Krystal let out a gasp, a short and quiet moan… She wanted to do what her figment of imagination had done. Now she can really live the dream… "Fox, I don't want to wait! I want you! For so long I felt alone, felt so empty… I need you… Be mine."

"Then I'm yours…" He declared.

She pushed him onto the bed and mounted him. "This is Frost's trailer, right? Would he mind?"

"I couldn't care less."

They continued to kiss. A powerful force had driven them to continue. Krystal suffered a long time being alone, neglected and scared, and Fox felt betrayed and battered and broken… All of it can be forgotten in one fell swoop…

At first, she had the advantage, but the tables were turned when Fox turned on her and mounted her. He pinned her to the bed but continued to press kisses, but he was trailing them lower… The vixen could only lift her shirt and lower her pink underwear to her ankles. "Fox… Oh my…" Her heart was beating so fast, and her body felt overwhelmed with a weird, sensual pleasure that she had not felt from Panther's love making, even though the technique was similar.

But she couldn't care for Panther; she wanted her knight in shining armour. She was a fighting princess, but alone, she could not overpower her demons. "Fox…"

McCloud was no virgin, and he knew what he had to do. He did have sex with girls before he met the cobalt vixen, but he wanted to wait when he got with her in the past. Now that he had her to himself, he wanted to please her. His urge to take her however was stronger than any other feeling of need… It was inhuman, but he ignored that fact…

Her naked mound of pink flesh was exposed to him. Just staring at it made him want it, the moist and soft look of it; it just called out to him. Taking a deep breath in, he ran his tongue up her moist flesh.

Krystal jerked; she felt as though an electrical charge surged through her body, mercilessly overpowering her senses and turning them into ecstatic feelings of pleasure. She needed more, she wanted more! It was more addictive than a black market drug, and she tried drugs before. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs behind his back and pulled him in.

In reaction, he forced his tongue to become rougher. He felt something churn within his body… He wasn't a mortal, and maybe this is one of the benefits to being some sort of immortal… He could feel her pleasure as much she did. He focused on sucking on the very sensitive bud of hers, and she jerked even more. Pleasure exploded within his body, but not fairly intense.

Her wetness was tasty, sweet like sugar.

"Fox, I feel like I'm going to burst!" What she had felt from her dreams and imaginations were nothing compared to what she felt right now. Each stroke of his tongue was almost like a 'mortal' orgasm, one after another! But at the verge of her real orgasm, she couldn't explain it. Her mind was in euphoria, and her body was overloaded with signals she found difficult to take in.

He couldn't stop himself; he wanted to please her, because he found it satisfying to do so. Most men would just try to reach their own orgasm and get it over and done with; McCloud however had the notion put in his mind that it is more rewarding to please someone else more. He knew he was close to making her climax; it was only a matter of time…

They had barely been together for a couple of hours, but the past behind them led them to return together, with a strong and tight hugging grip they both share between each other. She loved him… He loved her… That's all that matters now… Her life was complete.

He pulled back and let his fingers continue the job. "Don't let it out yet!"

"I won't!" She promised, and once again the tables had turned between them. Though she still had her mound in Fox's view, she had his bulge in her view. She unfastened his button and pulled down the zipper before freeing his erection. Speechless at the sight, she could only stare at it with the urge to return the favour. "I want it…"

"A little greedy, are we?" He smirked. "But what my love wants, gets."

She chuckled for a moment, but closed in on the thick member. Her tongue poked at its head, her lips pressed a wet kiss on the length and her right hand complimented its thickness by wrapping itself around it.

McCloud squirmed around, feeling the sensations he never felt before. He'd been given head before, and it did feel good but… never THIS good! "Oh Krystal…" He breathed.

"Ah! Fox!"

She did not reply as she finally wrapped her lips around the width of his member, and she took as much of it as she could, taking grip of what she couldn't take with her hand tightly.

Letting out a whimper, he felt overwhelmed and overpowered with an amplified sense of pleasure… He didn't know how it works, but he couldn't care. His hands found the hair of her head, and tangled themselves to tug her in. McCloud couldn't burst yet, and so tried to force his body to hold itself. However, tangling his hands in her hair didn't make it any easier for him as he kept pulling her in. "Your tongue, your lips, your mouth!"

She couldn't say anything, had she had tried it'd be muffled and incoherent. Somewhat, she felt pleased to be able to please Fox, and she felt her pink flesh flood itself with its wetness. Gabriel had said sex as a preternatural was amazing, but words could not describe what she felt right now. It was like they had some sort of connection with each other…

Pulling out, she stopped herself from making him lose control, and herself especially. "I don't want to make you come yet… You might not be able to continue."

"Well, I wouldn't say that." McCloud said, though he sounded almost breathless.

The smirk on Fox's face intrigued her. Turning to him and helping him up, she took his place and lay back on the bed. She was ready for him… "Fox… I want you."

Getting atop her, he spread her legs and lifted them in the air, resting them on his shoulders. "Should I be gentle?"

She thought about it for a moment… She had sex before and she was tolerant for rough sex, and found herself enjoying it more rough than gentle… Gentle is quite special but at this point, she needs him to be hard on. "Don't be."

"Are you sure? I'm not sure… We've experienced so much already from just-"

"Don't worry… Trust me… It'll be amazing." She reassured.

Her charm had him under some sort of trance… He couldn't resist anymore and so slowly pushed himself into her. The tightness of her entrance was pure heaven, the closest her can get.

Krystal jerked, and pulled Fox to a tight hug. What she had experienced at the shower, the imaginary Fox's full member driving into her, was a dream she could easily forget! It felt so right, so powerful, and humanely impossible! Everything she had liked about making love had turned into an addiction. Rehab could not sort out this problem; it was beyond their help to stop this.

Thinking to the past, it was good. Now and again she would moan to the pleasurable feel, but comparing it to now, her was screaming non-stop: to her heart's content.

Neither of their bodies could keep up with the pleasures that they were experiencing…

Fox in heat, thrust the fastest and hardest he can; drops of sweat rolled down his face, and with each thrust was a loud moan and occasionally a cry of desperation. "Oh God, Krystal!"

Responding simply by kissing him, they both struggled to dominate one another's tongue. The vulpine still kept going, but his voice was merely muffled, as well as the vixen's voice could not be heard. He knew he was having sex on Frost's bed with his eternal lover, but at this point, no one would back out anytime soon. They were knee deep, fiercely making love.

They broke the kiss, and McCloud continued his work. Straightening his back and taking hold of Krystal's ankles, he kept going at his full potential, penetrating deep into her pink flower. "Argh! Krystal!" It was the only name that he could think about… The only person in his mind and the only person he loved in such a possessive way. He couldn't care less that he was of demon blood now, and that she was an Angel, they are in love and love supposedly conquers all.

"Oh God, Fox! I…" She was speechless, though it didn't mean she couldn't scream. He was driving deep into her flower, grinding his member roughly against her ultra-sensitive walls. Pulling a pillow to her chest and hugging it tightly to try and cope with the overwhelming senses. It didn't help as she felt a surge of ecstatic energy tear through her will, ricocheting around every nerve of her body, and reaching as deep as her soul… Instinctively she reached for the even more sensitive bud, to please herself along with the pleasure that

Even McCloud had that surge of ecstasy tear through his will. He couldn't stop and forced himself to go his fastest! Thrust after thrust, there was no turning back now.

Their screams were even louder, their cries of ecstasy echoed around the small home. Krystal came first; flooding her flower and feeling everything exaggerate itself to the point where she couldn't take it anymore. Fox, in response, unloaded his seed, crying out as loud as she did in her climax. Their release was one, together… Their release was powerful. Neither of the two could compare what they had felt before to now, even if they could keep going in the past it's merely prolonging something that could not overcome what the both of them felt now. He had filled her with his seed, and she was somewhat thankful for it.

Their bodies were void of any energy… The both of them had become numb and they couldn't feel anything else besides the still faint (but comparable to a consistent orgasm) feeling within their bodies. The vulpine collapsed on to the vixen. She didn't detest against his weight and found it interestingly right.

The world around them darkened and turned to black as they fell into a sex induced coma… Her Angel wings wrapped over him like a blanket, keeping the both of them warm… "Thank you…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Frost was with the others discussing current matters at hand. What most people would ask would be: "Why live here?" He believes it's fairly secure and that no one would suspect him. Before he took up mercenary work, he was one of the main engineers for the rides, but since his daughter had taken everything up for him, he was able to get a better career.

But knowing that Fox would probably be some sort of beacon, they had to ponder whether it'd be safe for them to stay.

Tibleam, Gabriel's loving wife, was most approving. She always enjoyed company but also couldn't let a fellow Cornerian, let alone a couple to be hanged and dried by Andross. She loathed the ape very much and had no problem helping his enemies.

Falco and Slippy had mixed opinions due to the safety of the many civilians around them. Should Andross find them, it'd be a bloodbath. Peppy detested the idea and suggested that Andross be fought head on.

"They're staying."

"But if Andross finds us, he'll destroy Corneria!"

Gabriel shook his head. "Don't be so sure ya ol' git. It's safe for now but we'll be prepared. It's not the first time we've been hit by a crisis."

"Are you sure that it's safe?"

Gabriel nodded. But if they have to fight, there's no backing down. For the mean time, he hopes that Fox and Krystal can make up for all the lost time. He'll also need to help Fox and Krystal with their new abilities; after all, they are now a pair to be reckoned with.

"So has the 'Kurse' been lifted?" Falco sarcastically asked.

"For us it has. For Andross, it has only just begun."

_**Note: There had been a few uploading errors, as I tried to have double spaces and other things to split segments apart but it didn't show but I fixed that error for this chapter. Enjoy and please don't complain to me about the sexual nature of the chapter: What is the 'M' For?**_


	8. Chapter 8: Hunted

It had been a couple of hours since they had first made love… And God… They both had smiles on their faces.

Nuzzling her cheek against Fox's, Krystal felt herself again… But maybe she didn't abandon her identity as Kursed; maybe both identities have combined together to form something new. She wasn't the old Krystal, she wasn't the cold Kursed; she was something new, and she felt rewarded for changing herself to a large extent. "Hey." She said softly.

"Hey." McCloud responded, stroking her soft and silky blue hair. All these years he had waited for her return… Thank God she had, and even though the situation had become complicated, they were still happy to be together once again. "That was amazing…"

"Not as amazing as you my love." Krystal flattered. She was glad that McCloud was alive and well to be with her, and that she survived a terrible ordeal. They will have to fight, but this time it will be together… They'll be together forever. "It must've been hell without me."

"Hell is an understatement. But since this beautiful Angel took me to a personal heaven, I guess life's all good once again." Hell would have given him a less severe punishment. To endure a time of loneliness that rocked his core and tore apart his sanity was more torturous than Andross' conversion process. "You know what so cliché about all of this is?"

"That we barely got back together and still we can have sex like we've been together for years?" It was cliché, and she can admit to that. Regardless of the typical romance between them, it was something to look forwards to. "The least we can say is that we're back together."

"The least? So you think there's more to come for the two of us?" Fox curiously asked. Krystal nodded as a response and he chuckled. He liked the idea, and there will be more… "You know Krystal, I'd never thought you'd become such a fierce fighter."

"Well, I never saw it the way you did when I was part of the team. I guess I understand; it's an exhilarating experience." And fighting did help solve a few problems with her self-esteem and problems with the past. Now that no one cared for the betrayal of Star Fox and that she was no longer made fun of, she can return peacefully.

Pressing an affectionate kiss to her cheek, he hugged her tightly. Just as she was about to enjoy the hug, he turned on her and exploited one of her most intimate weaknesses… Tickling. "Still ticklish after all these years?"

"Fox-hahaa-S-s-stoaahhhaaaaaa!" She could help but laugh. She struggled to free herself, though she knew it was just a form of affectionate fun. "Nyahahaha!" She was becoming breathless, but McCloud was one of mercy and stopped for her. She still chuckled and giggled as he pulled her back into a simple hug. She sighed in delight.

The vulpine noticed that the food from earlier was still on the table, and still looked good to eat as long as it was heated. Food and sex: the typical time of lustful love. Considering that he was 41 and she was 34, he felt that his age had reduced back to his prime adult age. Ironically, he will be stuck with his young physical age for the rest of his life, much like Krystal. Last night, she did seem beautiful but looking at her now, she seemed younger but more gorgeous than ever.

"You seem younger than usual." Krystal coincidentally made the comment first.

He responded in kind. "You do too, but not that neither of us is complaining." He loosened his grip and set her feet on the floor. "Let's eat. I'm sure you're hungry, and I know how much you loved bacon." Foxes like him and Krystal enjoyed their meat, and knowing Krystal she would gob it down the most out of the whole team without worrying about her physical appearance.

She stood and pulled him as well. If she was going to eat, he'd have to eat with her. "I see you're hungry." Fox commented. "Didn't I 'satisfy' you?"

"A liquid diet can never substitute real meat, but I did enjoy that really big sausage of yours." She said jokingly, though she'll admit, she did enjoy giving head to him.

McCloud blushed and scratched the back of his head. "When did you start being a tease?" This Krystal was far more seductive, far more lustful than the women he fell in love with in the past, and still he loved her. It wasn't surprising that she'd be able to mature and become one of the most ruthless bounty Hunters of the galaxies… And yet she was still the same tender vixen that he saved from Sauria, and the few times during the Aparoid Invasion. She held her own as a mortal against Demonic forces and now that she was an Angel, she'll be an unstoppable force when reckoned with. She was not cursed, but she was a 'Kurse'.

"So you took up the business to earn a living as I heard? And to fix the CloudRunner?" When she nodded, he acknowledged. Though being a bounty Hunter wasn't an ideal career to live by, she would've been able to repair her home ship. It was small but cosy… But not as cosy as a real home. The vulpine thought about how she was able to gain such a solid reputation when clearly she was no match for Gabriel who was less popular; most likely she was more public with her career whilst Gabriel was more private.

Then again, he was a mercenary in the past, but now that Mercenary business is a mixed bag, most former mercenary groups (even Star Wolf) turned over to more honest jobs. He knew however that Wolf O'Donnell still got himself in some sort of trouble with former acquaintances and rival thugs. The last time he encountered them was in the cockpit of his arwing. He tried to provoke an attack against all four of the Star Wolf members but for some reason, none of them were willing to attack. If he looks back to it, he was glad that nothing had happened; otherwise he wouldn't have survived to live and see his lifemate.

Wolf had left the mercenary business for a while but he might be willing for an arwing spar. He decided to distract his mind from the thought and decided to have 'very' late breakfast with his lover. Krystal took a seat at the table first whilst McCloud decided to heat up the food in the microwave. "It's not going to be as good as it was earlier but to eat it hot is better."

"Oh you don't know how long I've been eating off cold cans of tuna." Now that she looked back at it, she shares a common trait with Frost: they both hate tuna. She used to like it but you get sick of something over time due to repetition.

Though the two had shared a very sweet moment, they knew they'd have to fight against Andross once again. Hopefully, they'll make sure it'd be the last time. "I want to make sure that we'll have a happy life… But there's something still there."

"I know…We both have our reasons to fight him. I've lost my family, and I almost lost you because of 'him'."

"Then we have something to finish..." She kissed McCloud affectionately. "We're together again... We don't have to worry about a thing anymore."

* * *

Frost had Tibleam shut the park down for 'private hire'. The two stayed in one of the spare rooms they would usually set up for guests. Tibleam was very comfortable with the popular Fox McCloud to accommodate their usual living quarters, since he wanted to catch up with his old lover. They agreed that Fox and Krystal should have some time to bond, and a whole carnival theme park was perfect. "Hopefully the couple have a lovely time together."

"I'm sure they will. Remember when we had fun here?" Gabriel teased.

Tibleam smiled and nodded in response. When the two of them were young adults, they had mindless fun. During the early years in their relationship, they usually stopped off at this carnival. They were regular customers, and they both knew the owner of the carnival who always let them in for free.

Going on rides like the Ferris wheel and the roller coasters could not have been any more exciting or romantic. Just him, her and cotton candy to share. Or popcorn... Or a very large soda. The owner of the carnival eventually died but in his will, allowed the two to take ownership of the theme park, to which they took advantage and respected his wishes.

Even to now, Frost wouldn't mind taking Tibleam through the 'fun house'. It made him feel a little childish but whatever works to keep him feeling young.

Tibleam ambushed Gabriel with a passionate kiss. To be able to taste Gabriel felt great; it had been a while. She missed her lifemate... Even though he goes around the Lylat System on dangerous missions, risking his own life, she wouldn't have it any other way... She'd love to be able to travel with him; maybe she can achieve that dream. But for now, nothing else was important besides him being able to take her... She wanted him for herself.

Though he was surprised by her forwardness, he could only respond to her lust... He quickly removed his jacket and threw it aside. He allowed Tibleam to tear apart his shirt to remove it, and pulled down his combat jeans. Now that he had everything off, he helped to tear apart Tibleam's dress, to which she didn't mind as he noticed her smile. Mrs Magilligan didn't even wear any underwear... "What? Were you expecting this to happen?"

"Of course!" Throwing him on the table, she intended to leave no mercy. Mounting the hedgecat, she threw her hair back and chuckled as he was helpless to her plea. "I think this takes me back to the days at the Cornerian Academy."

"Is it me or did you have a knack at making me look bad?"

"I'm good at what I do." Taking hold of his member, she smirked. "And this is another thing that I'm REALLY good at..."

"I wouldn't doubt it..."

She let his member drive deep into her... And the whole world around her felt like an illusion... And the only thing she could consider real was him.

* * *

Though they had a date set up, they actually fell asleep... And it as morning. Fox felt that there was something wrong so he decided to wake early. Neglecting the fact he was still nude, he still went outside to check on things. He knew something was up... But he couldn't put his finger on it. He had a good view of the beach from where he was standing... And the... Red... Sunset... Red...?

Having a closer look, he then growled as he realised that he could see figures emerging from the sea, and they were approaching. "Demon scum..."

The Magilligan couple emerged from their room and saw the incoming creatures. "I'll warn the others." Tibleam said.

Frost took a fresh pair of clothes but had already come to support the vulpine. "Bad start to a morning eh?" He was nude, just like Fox, but neither of them commented on the fact.

Krystal emerged from the trailer, already in gear. She dressed up fast and wasted no time on the fact that there were Demons around. She could feel their presence. Seeing Fox and Frost however still naked was an almost comedic sight. "If this isn't awkward, then I won't say anything."

A large Demon emerged from the sea and roared angrily at the trio. "You're dead!" The larger creature ordered his subordinates to charge whilst he drew a large hook shot. "Fox McCloud, by order of Master Andross, you shall die!" He fired the hook at the three, though they all dodged the shot.

Frost, seeing that his trailer is practically ruined, he was immediately angered by the Demon. "Bastirt! That was my trailer!"

As the Demon pulled the trailer that was held by his hook shot, Frost and Fox dived through the trailer whilst Krystal ducked under it. McCloud was able to catch his clothes and the both of them managed to get dressed before breaking out of it. The Demon smashed the trailer in half and was not happy that he did not catch neither of them.

"Well. There goes my home..." Frost commented. The lesser creatures had arrived and were ready to fight. "Well, you lot want to go?"

Krystal stood and drew her staff. "Let's make quick work of them."

The hedgecat drew his personal combat axe. "Don't worry, this'll be a bloody breeze." Knowing that he wasn't alone to fight against the hordes was very reassuring as well.

It was just like old times, only a little different. Like before, Fox will be able to fight alongside his friends, and more importantly the love of his life. He fought for her freedom in Sauria, fought alongside her during the Aparoid invasion, and to some extent during the Anglar Blitz. He was glad that he was able to fight alongside her again. Smiling at his cobalt vixen love, she smiled back. "Our life seems cut out for us."

"So is our work." The vixen responded before striking one of the Demons that charged at her. With her unbreakable Staff in hand, she felt invincible. Spinning it in hand and striking another Demon with considerable force to the side of its face. The Stygian's armoured like skin shed, and seemed almost fragile to the vixen's attacks. Her attacks not only shed skin, but knocked them away.

Demons usually would have higher endurance to mortals, but Krystal wasn't mortal anymore. Her strength and speed were amplified, and now she stood a significant chance against her new foe. Though she never initially wanted any part to such an ancient war between Angels and Demons, now that she was an Angel herself, and that he eternal lover was a Demon, she was more than involved.

Fox drew his thick blade and effortlessly cut in half a one of the Stygian Demons that threatened him. He felt a ferocious anger brew within him, anger at the Demons... He was one himself but he was not like them. He had a heart, a heart to love someone... He also had a sense of justice, and wouldn't let these evil creatures harm the Cornerian populace.

Cutting through one of the Demons with his axe, Gabriel had finished off the last of the first wave of Demons. "In a game of chess, you send the pawns first. What's next?" He looked out to the sea and saw multiple death knights, armed with shields and integrated blades on their arms. They were larger than their stygian counterparts, but still considered lesser Demons since they are still near human sized. "And he sends the knights early."

Krystal knocked down another Stygian, and that same Demon was shot from afar by a sniper. The glint of the scope gave away the sniper's position, and it happened to be that the shooter was standing on the top of the Ferris wheel. Though she couldn't make out who it was, she could guess it was someone that Frost knew.

"Nice work Alue." Frost complimented.

She jumped off the Ferris wheel and proceeded to find her mother. A group of lesser Stygian blocked her way, but she was well armed for the situation. Gunning them down, she caught up with her mother who was reloading two machine-pistols. "Didn't you practice reloading?" She joked.

"Hey, it's been a while since I fought."

Krystal, remembering that Alue was the name of his daughter could only imply that it was Alue that saved her hide today. "Well, I guess it's true what they say. The offspring take from the parents." Looking around, she then noticed a couple of hanging objects across a bridge. It seemed to look like her, and Gabriel's, guns hanging from bras. Interestingly enough, her guns were hanging off her bra that she threw aside when she made love with Fox. "Hmm... I wonder how those got out here."

"Your guns or the 'holsters'?" McCloud teased.

When Frost saw that the death knights were planning to swarm the bridge, he grunted and already made his way towards the hanging firearms. "Come on, don't stop!" Making a circle with his fingers, placing them in mouth, he whistled aloud to signal the next part of the plan. Should ever there be an assault on the carnival, especially ground attacks, traps were placed in different areas to slow or hinder assault progress. Under the bridge happened to be a lot of explosives, set to explode one by one. That was one of the many traps ready set out around the carnival.

The two foxes were confused as to why they had to run, but practically found out as the bridge started to blow apart. They had to pick up the pace or be caught in the explosion, and there is no telling whether they'd survive the multiple blasts. "Fox! Give me a lift!" Krystal requested as they were close to the other side. The vixen leaped in the air. McCloud placed his hands in front of him, to which Krystal landed on. Just as she did, he amplified her jump to gain enough altitude to reach the handguns. She was able to grab hold of the three handguns and land on her feet, handing over Gabriel's Taurus revolver before offering Ivory to Fox. "Whether you've gotten rusty over the years for not firing a sidearm, I'm wondering whether you'll be able to keep up."

"Is that a challenge?" Fox smiled as he took the bulky pistol, pulling the slide and charging the weapon ready. He was as competitive as before and there were no restrictions this time. "Krystal. You ever wonder whether your life was a curse whilst we weren't together?"

The cobalt vixen thought about it. "Maybe... But then when you think about it, I was revered, loved, and had everything. I threw everything away for stupid reasons." She looked around and saw death knights preparing themselves to fight the trio. She continued her story: "My life wasn't cursed... The truth is... I am Kursed." She raised her pistol and fired at the creatures.

Pulling the vixen to a hug, he smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "I wouldn't have it any other way." They shared another kiss before turning around to shoot down their enemies. Fox liked the handgun he was given, and even more so for having the Star Fox logo engraved on the slide. It was also very easy to handle, and powerful.

Shooting down a few other Demons, Frost chuckled. "Touching moment. You two are dating in your own element."

"This is an odd date then." Fox commented before continuing to lay off lead. The shield that the knights wielded couldn't stop the powered shots, and they were quick work. It was like charging target practice. Though they were able to dispatch large groups of lesser Demons, the waves became larger and larger as the Hunter Demon sent more.

Tibleam was holding herself fine and was at a vantage point, specifically she stood upon the roof of the bumper cars, where the second trap's detonator was prepared. Setting it off, gutters let off a violent spray of flames that happened to incinerate the unlucky stygian and death knights that were caught off guard.

Falco managed to outrun pursuing stygian and get on one of the roller coasters as it was moving. Having brought with him a high calibre machinegun with him, he could easily provide support to his comrades fighting on the ground. Seeing that Katt, Slippy and Peppy were defending the entrance from any of the creatures, since they were more focused on attacking Fox and Frost, he was not as worried but still knew he had to keep a look out for his friends and his love.

He saw the Hunter Demon move away from the beach to close in on the carnival. He could tell that this Demon wasn't pleased with the lack of progress that his minions made and decided to hunt down his targets. While considerably larger than any of them, he didn't doubt that even one of the trio were more than a match.

With his forces diminished, the Hunter had no choice but to fight on his targets head to head. It didn't take long for the Hunter to find the three as they were out in the open pathway that could have led them to the exit/entrance of the theme park. The trio were not intimidated by his large size. "So much for hunting season. I think we're a bit out of your league to be your game." McCloud taunted.

"Should we all fight him?" Krystal asked.

Frost shook his head and instead, he encouraged Fox to go ahead and face the Hunter alone. "You have to learn how to control your powers."

The vulpine was confident enough. Clicking his fingers and loosening himself, he walked forwards. Halted by his loving vixen, he stopped. "Something the matter?"

"Take this for extra luck." The former bounty Hunter handed her second pistol, Ebony, over to McCloud. Two guns are better than one.

There was something special about wielding two guns that correspond to each other well, and in this case, these guns will be more than enough to take on his opponent. He mockingly pointed the guns and pretended to fire the weapons to taunt the Demon. "Bang!"

The Hunter was not amused, but did not taunt back. Instead, he revealed that his hook shot can actually fire other projectiles besides the connected hook. Replacing the hook with a heavy barrel and slapping on a large magazine on the weapon, he merely smiled. "Let's see what those pesky pea shooters can do."

Falco from the ride drew his katana and called out to the vulpine. "Hey Fox! Use this!" He threw the blade to his friend who caught the blade by its handle.

"Oh-ho! Things just got interesting!" In response, the Hunter drew his own, improvised blade. It seemed as though it was his hunting blade, as it was shaped to easily cut through flesh and curved to inflict more pronounced wounds. It still didn't faze Fox.

There was a moment of pause between both parties. Both were waiting for one or the other to make the first move. Fox clung on to the folded blade in right hand and one of the handguns in the other, tightening his grip on the weapons and putting all his trust in them. McCloud believed that a good weapon is more than a weapon, but a comrade to the user. Right now, he didn't feel like he was facing the Demon alone. "Let's put on a show."

McCloud was first to charge, and the Hunter Demon followed suit. The vulpine felt a ferocious sense of animal instinct overwhelm him, and that feeling was urging him to fight.

The two swung their blades at each other, but neither party was able to successfully strike the other as the blades connected and deflected each other. Surprisingly, Fox was able to throw off the attack, as if his strength matched or was beyond that of the larger Demon he was fighting. The vulpine used Ebony in his left hand to fire at the creature, who blocked the bullets with his hunting knife but the charged energy of each round stumbled him by a little bit. McCloud exploited the first opportunity to strike the Demon as he was blocking his gunfire, and so closed in to strike, and was able to leave a long cut along the Hunter Demon's chest.

Though it was merely just a cut, it still angered the ill-tempered creature. In retaliation, the Hunter leaped at Fox like a predator attacking prey, only it was predator on predator in this situation. He jabbed his blade down but the smaller vulpine was agile and faster than his strike, dodging his attack. His blade was already stuck to the ground, and this left him vulnerable to another attack, to which he was aware of.

The vulpine tried to strike with the katana, but missed as his opponent jumped in retreat. His foe fired his large cannon like gun, and it spewed out rounds like a machinegun. He was able to out run most of the gunfire, but he needed to fight back. Throwing the katana at the wall of an empty carnival stall, he used it as a platform to get atop. As he jumped to the roof, he drew Ivory and fired back at the Hunter rapidly, matching the dizzying speed that the Hunter's gun fired. The Demonic energy of his amplified the already integrated power of the gun and he was able to deflect the larger rounds fired at him.

The Hunter put away his firearm to retrieve his knife, and was able to do so before Fox could retrieve his katana. With his powers, he was able to extend the relatively small knife to a small sword like length (at the cost of width).

The two Demons charged at each other again, swinging blades at each other and blocking and deflecting every attack they threw at each other. The Hunter Demon tried to lock his blade with McCloud's, but Fox still had his left hand to punch him in the face and knock him back. "Do you bastards even feel pain!?"

Deciding to switch to less direct attack methods, the Hunter jumped atop a Ferris wheel, and held on to it whilst armed with his hand cannon.

"Hey! Get down here and fight!"

Of course, the Hunter would refuse the demands of his 'prey' and instead just fired his weapon as a response. The fast fire rate of his hand cannon did get Fox running around the area... Unfortunately, his gun wasn't void of any problems and wasn't magically enchanted like most Demonic and Angelic arms were, and his gun jammed. He growled in frustration and slammed his gun against the Ferris wheel in order to fix his firearm's malfunction, but to no success.

Fox was able to bring down the Hunter from his vantage point by rapidly firing his own guns. He was able to shoot some parts of the carnival ride which the Hunter held on to and so he fell to the ground hard. Rushing to attack, he charged with katana in hand and swung his blade at the larger Demon. He missed as the hunter recovered quickly and leaped away in retreat to another one of the rides; this time he picked the tallest roller coaster ride as his vantage point.

The Hunter was able to fix the malfunction of his gun by forcefully ejecting the jammed round. Loading a new magazine in, he fired again at Fox.

"Get down here!" Fox angrily shouted. He was able to close in on the roller coaster ride. Having little time to think of a rational plan to bring down the Hunter Demon, he instead used his newly acquired brute strength, and threw a punch at one of the pillars that held the ride up. This caused a chain reaction as other pillars and support beams started to bend or break as the stress brought them beyond their threshold.

The Hunter was forced away and jumped down on the ground to face Fox again. He swung his blade down on the vulpine in hopes of finishing the battle.

McCloud barely dodged the attack, and had humiliated his foe as once again his blade was stuck. Taking the opportunity to strike, Fox attacked and struck the Demon against its chest once again, this time with a deeper, fatal cut. Satisfied as he emerged the victor, a smile curved upon his face. He approached the Demon and had the katana over his shoulders. "Game over." He declared.

"For me it may be... But know this McCloud. You're dead, just like your whore mother and bastard father."

"Whore mother? Bastard father?" He chuckled at the insults, as it wouldn't really matter to him now. "I don't really know much about my parents but if you're calling me a son of a bitch or a bastard child, you wouldn't be the first!" Delivering the final blow, he finished off the Hunter. It was over... For now...

* * *

Looking around at the carnage, Tibleam sighed. Though there was no salvaging such a popular place, she was at least glad that no civilians were hurt. "Well. I guess we'll have to leave the Carnival for good." She turned to Alue who dropped down from her vantage point. She knew that this place had been her home for a long time, and to leave it behind would be upsetting.

The mix-bred surveyed the carnage and sighed like her mother. Despite the fact that her long-time home had been destroyed, it was best to move on. She bolted her rifle to check if it had any ammo chambered; it was empty. Locking the weapon on its safety, she helped her mother take some food and water to the others who were tired out from the fight. Tending to her father first, she offered him a bottle of water. "Here dad."

Gabriel took the offer and opened the bottle, taking large gulps of water. Noticing that his daughter was using one of his favourite rifles, he smiled. "Hmm. I didn't know you liked the 417."

"Hey. Like father, like daughter." She commented. "So what's the plan now?"

"We can't really stay here anymore. That's for sure. But I promised to help Fox and Krystal beat Andross." Gabriel explained.

The younger Magilligan understood. "You think I can come?"

"This is not going to be a drill like I've shown you. This is a real dangerous mission."

"Well, danger is the best form of experience in this business." Falco added. The pheasant looked towards the two foxes who were resting from the fight. It was obvious that they had made love the other night, but he became curious. Fox was a Demon by blood and Krystal was an Angel by blood, and it's possible to have a hybrid spawn. They were known by modern Angel standards as Nephelim. Like any mortal couple, they can conceive on the first night. "Do you think they conceived one of the 'third race'?"

Gabriel nodded. "They have..."

Cornerian soldiers had to sweep the area for stranglers and lockdown the area from civilians. Most of them however took notice of Fox, and the other former Star Fox members. It seemed as though they were a form of gossip to go around.

Eventually, one of the passing soldiers stopped to ask Fox: "It the Star Fox team back together?"

McCloud didn't really have an answer at first. They only reunited after so long, and now that they're all back together, can they all be ready to be a team again?

"They're back together. But a little bigger." Frost explained, suggesting that Star Fox is not alone this time. Gabriel took a cigarette and lit it. He offered the last cigarette in box to Fox. Surprised that he actually took the offer, he chuckled. "I didn't know the ever so popular McCloud smoked fags."

He smoked, just never showed it. He started smoking when Krystal left the team during the Anglar Blitz. It wasn't good for his health but now, smoking wouldn't really affect him negatively.

A Cornerian soldier brought in a small crate and placed it in front of Gabriel and Fox. "Your orders sir. They came in fresh from Tony Redgrave." He opened the crate to reveal handguns similar to Krystal's, but with different engravings on it and some change to the customisations to it. They were named: 'Luce and Ombra MK II', much like Krystal's 'Ebony and Ivory MK II' handguns. For the most part, it shared most of the design patterns from the other handguns. It also had holsters and extra magazines stored with it.

"Wow." Fox took the handguns and spun them in hand. "I like these." The weight and character, and the magical energy stored in the guns were just the most fascinating traits about them. He now had a new personal set of firearms to brandish. During the past, he used his own custom 'MK IV Markza blaster pistol' which helped him survive simple fire fights, but now that he had two handguns that would mow down just about anything that he'll face in future.

On the slides, were Star Fox logos engraved, with Luce (the darker handgun) with the blue logo and Ombra with the red logo.

Strapping on the holsters and holstering the handguns, he smiled at Krystal who also had similar gear. She smiled back.

"I'll get the ship ready to go." Frost said. "Help Slippy and Falco bring some of the supplies to the ship."

"I'll help you with the ship." Alue stated and followed her father. Tibleam followed suit as she carried an assault rifle that she'll be using later.

Krystal found the sight of a close family like them to be quite uplifting. It made her smile to see a happy family, even though they do the dirty job for a living. Alue sooner or later would become a Cornerian mercenary like her father and mother, but because her father was a high ranking Angel who was powerful, she doubted that the young girl would go down so easy. She would be just like her father and mother...

"I want that..."

Fox nodded and smiled. "We'll be like them one day. Happy family. You, me, a kid and all..." He pulled the vixen to a hug. "Maybe a white picket fence."

"I think we'll just stick to teaching our child how to use weapons." She joked.

Fox chuckled. "Maybe." It's odd how Fox McCloud was so open to the idea of having children, just when his relationship had been recently repaired. But at this point, he didn't care. It'd probably bring him and Krystal closer together to have a child. His father was young when he was conceived; yet was still able to raise Fox.

* * *

They had brought important supplies on to the ship, and everything was ready to go. "Engines are good, atmosphere is good, and my whiskey..." He took a sip from his flask and exhaled in satisfied fashion. "Bloody brilliant."

The ship was clear to fly, and it sped away from its docking area. Alue double checked the status of the ship, and confirmed that the ship was in good condition to fly. It did take a beating, but it was no problem for her to make repairs. Most of the damage was light shrapnel and some laser damage but nothing deep or serious.

It was left to auto-pilot to one of the worm holes that would take them straight to Venom. It allowed them to rest for the time being.

Falco, Fox, Katt and Krystal for the meantime, conversed with each other to catch up. Krystal however was the main course of the conversation. It was interesting to hear about her life as a bounty hunter, and how she became notorious for her work. Fox found it especially interesting.

Eventually, Katt had become tired, and Falco had to take her to one of the rooms. It was just Fox and Krystal left to each other.

"Some wine?" McCloud offered.

Krystal smiled and nodded. "Yes. Please." It was a bit more relaxing to drink something elegant like wine, since she'd been drinking hard alcohol for a while. It didn't mean she didn't like hard alcohol but to drink classy required something like champagne or red wine. Fox poured some into her glass, and she slowly spun it around as if she was a classy drinker. Taking a sip, she couldn't help notice Fox's occasional glances to her as he drunk his own glass of red wine.

Downing the whole glass of wine was a breeze. They both found it easy... They didn't know what to talk about at this point and the two just looked at each other. But for some reason, Krystal's expression was almost lustful... She licked her lips and crossed her legs in her seat, leaning her head on her hand. The smile on her face was devious, and yet she was supposed to be the Angel in the relationship.

Fox found this new side to Krystal... Just perfect. He stood from his seat and walked close to her, throwing aside his wine glass, as did the cobalt vixen. Caught off guard, he was tackled to the ground. Krystal was really lusty as she tore his clothes off and then her own before throwing them aside. They pressed a passionate kiss on each other's lips, and they were both driven by the need for each other. They were insatiable, and they have a lot of desire to compensate for.

The vixen stood and pulled Fox up to stand before pushing him on the kitchen table. "Get comfy, Foxy." Getting on the table and mounting her lifemate, she threw her hair back. "We're going for a really rough ride."

Most likely the Arwing is not going to compare to what he was going to get now. If it was going to be rough, he just hoped that the table would be stable enough to hold up for them. He did relax most of his body, but still kept his head up to view the cobalt vixen's sexy body. Her body was curvy, and there were some muscles as a sign of physical strength. It implied that Krystal, whilst in the bounty hunting business, had pushed herself as much as she could but didn't go overboard.

Her fur and skin was soft and her breasts too… Just feeling her body was perfect. But he stopped himself and turned away.

"What's wrong?" Krystal asked, suddenly concerned.

Fox placed his hand on Krystal's cheek. He loved her to all his heart… "Krystal. I made a deal with God that I wouldn't ask for anything more than to see you one more time… Even though he gave me more than I bargained for, I'll keep to my end of the deal… I won't ask for you back if you leave again, because as much as I love you… I don't deserve you and can't have you… I shouldn't have you…" The past was hard, and he felt like a terrible lover for breaking his lover's heart. The vixen hushed him however.

"Fox… If you don't deserve me, then why are we soul mates?" She kissed him on the forehead. "You'll have me forever and I'll never leave. You deserve me and I deserve you. That's all it is and nothing would change that. I love you…" She meant it. The universe would be meaningless without Fox to be by her side to comfort her, to care for her, and most importantly, love her. They are now both ageless, and they can share each other's love for a long time coming.

Like now… The former bounty hunter lifted herself up before slowly making her way down on his member. It was hard and filling as she had managed to take it deep down to her hilt. She tried not to scream out aloud but the ecstatic feelings shot through her and tore through her will. She gasped in shock to the sudden pleasure, but her voice calmed. Slowly, Krystal forced herself up; the tight walls of her sex hugged tightly of McCloud's member. Each lift of her body helped her to grind her sensitive pink flesh upon him. It was even more sensitive to what she felt last night, and already she struggled to hold back her moans.

"Oh God." Fox was panting for air, trying to keep up with his body as it raced ahead of him in pleasure valley. It was far more powerful than the first, and it was difficult to hold back himself from his threshold. He couldn't come there, not yet.

But Krystal wouldn't make it any easier for him to hold himself, but she wasn't holding back neither. She arched her back and kept grinding her pelvis against his, trying so desperately to climax. So close... Oh so close. Her life felt complete... "Fox! Fox!" She clenched her teeth, and her hands grabbed on to the edge of the table.

They both were starting to cry aloud, no doubt their screams echoed throughout the whole of the ship. The screams became loud, almost piercing. A mutual climax was shared between them. Again his seed filled her, and the sticky, hot feeling was perfect. It wasn't long before the both of them fell into a deep sleep, but the faint feeling of their orgasms would not subside for a while.

Alue entered the kitchen with a blanket in hand. She threw it over the sleeping couple before going to the fridge to get herself a beer. "Sleep tight."


	9. Chapter 9: Beginning of Legacies

**I sort've got lazy with this chapter but I hope you all enjoy it.**

Fox was in the dream vortex again, accompanied by Gabriel. He had to master his abilities, and the only way they could do that is find the potential within. A sense of instinct always appeared in certain areas. Following the mercenary to the edge of the floating ground they stood on, he noticed how his vision focused on floating debris and they glowed red to him. This was his Demonic instinct telling him that he can take advantage of it, but how?

"Some high level Angels and Demons usually have some sort of item or ability they can use to get around places. Watch closely." He Demonstrated that his ability involved him teleporting from certain places to places, though from where he teleported from and to, was a trail of black smoke. Eventually he made it to another floating platform and waited for McCloud.

He summoned his large scimitar blade. A uniquely shaped scimitar known as Durga; the blade is serrated with the segments appearing to interlock like a Celtic knot. The end ofthe bladeis slightly jagged but not pointed as a normal Scimitar sword would be. With the thought and need to reach Gabriel, the energy from the weapon channelled to him, and then another item spawned. It was a Qilinbian whip, with the end of it glowing with Demonic energy. He hurled the end towards the first platform, to which the energy at the end of it held on to the floating debris. With his mind, he was able to control whether he wanted to keep hold of something or not. He pulled himself over with enough force, and was the under the debris, and before long he was using the whip to take hold and pull himself to where ever he pleased.

Finally reaching Frost, he wrapped up the whip around his hand. There was a door before them but it was blocked by rocks and boulders. "Hmm…" Fox murmured.

"Physical strength isn't everything on the battlefield, but it can benefit you very much." He raised his heel and smacked it down on the ground before spinning and directly kicking the boulders and rocks blocking the way. It was effortless, as the force kicked open the door and forced the boulders through. The hedgecat threw aside his coat and was just left in his black shirt and combat trousers, his pistol holstered on the left side of his torso.

Fox found the mercenary's strength to be somewhat intimidating. It was hard to imagine reaching his level of abilities, at least not for a while. But if he was to keep training for a while, he'd become stronger, but there just wasn't enough time to properly train all of his abilities. "So what's next?"

The hedgecat started walking down a pathway with Fox. "We've mastered some of your basic abilities… But we need to reach down to a deep power within you. Do you want to know why you're not like the Demons we've faced and killed?"

Fox thought about it and couldn't make it out. He expected that if someone turned a Demon or something 'evil' they'd become evil. Why wasn't he initially evil? Why did Androsshave to use a spell to make him evil? There were so many questions regarding the core question of why he wasn't evil like a Demon should be. He pondered on the thought and realised he never thought of it as he was too busy repairing his relationship with Krystal. A Demon couldn't love, could they? "I don't know Frost. I really don't know." He replied.

The mercenary approached the vulpine and pointed to where his heart would be. He smiled for a moment, because he knew the answer. "Because you're just a Demon, not a devil; devils never cry but a Demon is capable of feelings like a normal person." He picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it out into the open. "Especially you Fox. You were fated to be with your lifemate, and your love for her overpowered such darkness within your heart. Tamed it. TheKrazoa spirits you absorbed before also left a trail of energy, and all of them knew you were pure of heart, hence why you are so powerful."

More than a Demon? It all made sense. He was as good as a mortal with Demonic blood, that's what he was. He was given a blessed gift, an Angel to love forever. Destiny had favoured him over many others...

Gabriel looked over to another set of platforms. "What most people see evil, I see beyond that. Patience and observation…"

Fox looked around, feeling random senses of energy, but all too much of it. Slowing his breathing and allowing himself to see past all the emptiness, he finally saw that the path could be created by pure darkness. "Frost…"

He didn't hesitate to create the path, and the darkness now became a stone bridge. "Well. It's the end of the line." Frost walked across the bridge to a door. Opening it, it revealed a bright room. "I'll see you in the ship." He entered and disappeared in a flash of brilliance. Fox followed suit, and he disappeared from his vision as well.

* * *

Meanwhile aboard the ship, Krystal supervised Lucy who was tired from all the flying. The worm hole unexpectedly sent them to the wrong exit and now they had to fly the rest of the way to Venom. She had brought her an extra strong mug of coffee, and hopefully it should keep her awake for a bit. "So… When did you learn how to fly the ship?"

"I was actually part of Delta AWAL." She responded.

It was surprising, but it does make sense that Lucy rose up ranks faster than normal, an opportunity to join a special forces Lylatian team would come around fast. She was an expert in firearms and was a great arwing pilot. "So was Frost part of the team before you joined?" She asked, curious about Frost's past. There was a lot about him that was interesting to note down, and if Lucy really was part of the same team he was in then she could learn about him easily.

Lucy shook her head and chuckled. She explained to Krystal how he was last to join and that he was the most exceptional of the group. Though most of the group did consist of Preternaturals, Frost was the only Guardian Angel to ever join. It was also because the fact he was born of a high level, he was the best of the group. Often he the one dealing with ground operations, but otherwise was the cook. She also noted that Gabriel was very sociable and tried as hard as he could to become friends with anyone he met in the team. It wasn't long before he was the friend you can rely on, and everyone he knew felt like family to him.

What was notable for Frost in the past was the fact he would put others before his own safety, and because of this, would usually be the only one to get hurt in an operation. Eventually his threshold for pain grew and his wounds healed faster for this factor, but this sense of valour shows how moral Magilligan was.

Krystal can't imagine how many times Gabriel had taken a hit for someone else. It must've been many times…

"As long as you're on his side, he'll make sure you stand."

She nodded. She decided to talk about other things. The first topic that came to mind was the thought of a baby. Children born from both Angelic and Demonic decent are possible, but would it put their child in danger if they do conceive? The name of a half-bred Angel and half-bred Demon is usually referred to as 'the 3rd race' or more commonly, 'modern Nephilim'.

But then again… Frost had mentioned before that even intermediate grade Nephilim could rival high grade Angels or Demons. To Frost's standards however, he is more than just a typical high grade Guardian Angel. Regardless of what her rank or Fox's rank would be, or even Falco's, they are all a competitive force when put together. Add the rest of the other crew mates, unstoppable. Could it be that Star Fox has been revived and expanded with more members?

"I'm going to check on the others. Will you be okay?"

Lucy nodded and smiled to the vixen. Reassured, the cobalt vixen left the rabbit to fly the mother ship. Though she had been on the ship quite a few times, she still didn't know where everything was. Falco mentioned that he and the others would be at the dojo. It was a long trek around the ship but eventually she found her way to the training dojo, and Fox, Falco and Frost were there. The three F's of the crew.

They were practicing close quarters combat of different kinds. Gabriel and Falco were both familiar with different techniques. Falco had adequate training in gun-kata, a martial arts technique that uses firearms at really close ranges, whilst Frost was a specialist in Tae Kwon Do. Even though Falco's gun can give him some range, Frost was always able to close the distance in a close encounter.

The pheasant was fast and agile but Gabriel was dynamic and strong. Both of them had advantages and disadvantages towards each other.

Fox himself was practicing some techniques with his newly acquired weapon. Besides it being pretty much impervious to human damage, it was also capable of switching to different element types as the handle had a an open space to place a gem in. Apparently there are different elemental gems that can fit into this slot, but initially it came with the fire element.

Fox always wondered how people were able to control elements such as fire, earth and thunder under the palm of their hands or vice versa. Now able to control such power, he found that it was actually easier than it looks, but to discipline one's techniques requires effort itself. He was familiar with combat using melee weapons, since he used Krystal's staff before. It was part of his training back in the academy, but in comparison to using a scimitar like his own, it needed more personal training.

Frost and Falco stopped their spar to have a break. The mercenary approached the vulpine and helped to correct his stance. "Firm grip on the handle, your dominant leg as your primary standing leg. Sub-ordinate leg up front to balance." He helped him to lower his arms. "Relax... To swing and cut with such a sharp blade is fairly effortless for the lesser Demons."

"So it's all in the wrists?"

"And the arms." Frost Demonstrated a slow swing with his axe, showing that he doesn't need to much force to cut through most materials, but then again he was stronger than a typical mortal. "But sometimes, a little bit of power gives that extra sting to your attack."

Fox acknowledged. He felt like he was in the academy again, with one of the best teachers that the Cornerian forces had to offer.

"Learning the basics is the hard part. The easy part of this all is direct combat. It's all instinct. Feel the power of your weapon in hand, feel the character that revolves around it." One's own personal weapon usually had a lot of character within them. They had a history to go by or that they will share a history with their owner.

Instinct usually drives a warrior through combat, but technique sometimes gets involved in the process. He had to practice his technique, as well as adapt to improvised combat. Though he had some notion of being able to piece together random attack patterns in the battlefield, piecing together practiced attacks in different orders would prove to be even greater. He would also need to learn the weaknesses for the many different Demons that he'll be combating later.

The vulpine continued his spar with Frost, but eventually he was defeated when the hedgecat was able to evade an attack and counter him. Sweeping his legs and catching the scimitar, he held the blade next to the vulpine's neck. "Not bad. A little more practice could get you somewhere." The mercenary examined the weapon before helping the downed McCloud up to his feet. He spun the blade and returned it to its rightful owner. The blade was interestingly large, slightly heavier than most of the preternatural combat blades but still sharp. The weight would probably allow for a much heavier strike as opposed to lighter blades, and with this, even Demonic shields stood no chance.

When the three men saw that Krystal had been watching, they put away their weapons and stopped everything. Krystal chuckled and approached her Fox. "It's alright. None of us had beaten the bastard… Yet." She deviously looked towards Gabriel along with Falco and Fox. They have all been beaten by the mercenary at least once.

Falco himself lost the most times so far. But then again, he's already reached his peak level of combat ability, and it's still below Gabriel's. But regardless, he is not interested in becoming the best, at least not anymore. Like Fox and Krystal, he wants to start a family with Katt. Well, business would distract him once or twice but he was sure that he'll be able to raise a baby and show his love to Monroe as much as he can.

The pheasant sighing caught the other three's attention, especially Frost. "You sound like you have something on your mind."

Lombardi nodded. "Guys… I want to propose to Monroe." He admitted without a second thought. It didn't really embarrass him to reveal such business as he trusted the three.

They all found it to be very surprising, but then again very romantic as well. Falco used to be the kind of guy to go off and have sex with any girl, that is, until he and Katt became dear to each other. And he knew she was his lifemate! That was the best part about it; he had the woman of his dreams for the rest of his life. Katt Monroe was kind, loving, great in bed and understood Falco more deeper than he did himself. He loved her all too much and can never let her go.

Frost smiled. "Go for it lad." He said before leaving the dojo.

"We're routing for you Falco." Krystal and Fox left the dojo as well. There was nothing else to do for the next few hours and decided to meet up with his lover. Most likely she'd be in the bedroom.

He took a deep breath and left the dojo as well. Katt accommodated a room not too far from the dojo. The pheasant entered her room and found her just reading a book. He didn't take any regards as to what she was reading.

When the pink furred cat noticed her lover enter the room, she smiled and put her book aside. Even though he was sweaty from all the work, she didn't mind when he dropped his body on the bed and right next to her. "Someone's been working hard." She commented.

"Yeah. I need to shape the best of my Angelic powers." He admitted. It had only been a few days ago since he had revealed that he was a Guardian Angel to her. She actually found it romantic to be with such a being; it's not every day you meet a preternatural lover, let alone your soul mate. He was glad she stayed and she knew the risks.

Monroe put her book aside and kissed his beak. "I think you should go have a shower before you fall asleep."

The bird chuckled and pushed himself up, taking a towel from the drawer before exiting the room. He headed to the shower nearest to his sector. There were multiple bathrooms and showers in this ship, and it is very convenient at best since he and Katt were the nearest ones to the dojo and the only two accommodating section 5 of the ship.

Turning on one of the showers, he felt the spray of water with his left arm. It was hot, and just the way he liked it. A hot shower always was a great experience for him. Unbuttoning his martial arts vest and throwing it aside, he stopped as he heard the door open. He turned to look towards the door which closed again. Slowly he turned back to the shower head but as he did, he was surprised by a very possessive pounce.

Eventually he realised it was Katt… She had followed him to the shower… And she didn't wear anything but her pink panties that matched her fur. Just the sight of her half naked body was very tempting.

"You didn't notice that I was reading that book you gave me last week." She chuckled. With a husky voice, she whispered next to his head: "It was so hot… I just loved how Bethany had her loins caressed with care as a hot spray of shower water soaked her and Benedit…"

He forgot he bought her an erotic book. It was meant to be a bit of a joke: 'Read this and think of us doing this.' Least they don't have to think about it now, but instead experience what it's really like. "I guess that means you liked the book?"

The feline nodded. "I'm sure you've had some fun in the shower… I have too." She admitted but with a devious smirk. "Ever since I met you and ever since we first made love, nothing was the same. It was beyond anything I've ever experienced, I'd go as far to say even if I combined all the sex I had before you it'd still be-" She was cut off when the pheasant put his hand over her mouth. Not another word came out from that mouth as long as his finger kept those lips shut.

He kissed Katt with his beak; though not as soft as lips, she did mention how she liked the smooth texture and that he had a capable tongue. He then nuzzled the side of her head affectionately. It was about as good as it can get. "Katt. I want to talk about something. Very serious…"

The mention of the word 'serious' could mean anything, and at that point she was intimidated and unable to say anything. She hoped that what they were going to talk about wasn't to do with anything about ending a relationship. Katt couldn't lose him; he was too precious, more important than anyone else she had known through her life.

Her frozen state obviously gave away her fear, so he chuckled. "No, no. Not that."

She sighed with relief. "Then what is it you want to talk about?" Katt wondered.

At first, Falco pondered with the idea, whether he should admit he wants to marry the woman of his dreams now or wait a little longer. He couldn't: he knew Katt Monroe all too well and had already adapted to her presence. There was no other reason needed however because there was only one primary reason he wants to marry her. Producing an expensive diamond ring he bought during his visit to Macbeth.

Katt couldn't believe it… She gasped and held her hands over her mouth in shock, speechless to what she saw. It couldn't be… But she knew it was, and that it would've eventually happened… It was a little unexpected however and she thought he'd waited longer or not bother with the need to 'seal the deal' at all!

"Katt. Ever since that incident in Titania, I had feelings for you. I suppressed them; I only thought that it was just a phase… But it bounced back and hit me hard when the crew disbanded. I had no one to turn to but you… I was so happy to see you again." He was very happy. When things seemed bleak and dark, a glowing light lead him out of the darkness. "God knows how much I love you. And ever since we got together and got closer, I said to myself that we're going to have a proper family; a real family that we'll be a part of together."

Katt just didn't know what to say. She looked at the ring one more time… It was beautiful and had character just gleaming from it.

"Will you marry me…?"

Looking at Falco once more, she nodded confidently… There was no turning back… Her life will soon be the most happiest and pleasurable life she had ever agreed to…

After he slipped the ring into her left hand's fourth finger, she pushed him against the shower wall. Her devious smile returned. It was time to give Falco's reward… Pushing herself against him, she slowly rubbed her hand over his growing bulge. "My fiancé… My Falco Lombardi."

Falco let out a breath as he felt her hand rub over his covered member. She managed to help drop his combats, and as she did, he stepped off them and kicked it aside. "My fiancé… My Katt Monroe…"

"Soon to be Katt Monroe-Lombardi, AKA Mrs Lombardi." She added.

"The hottest feline… The most beautiful woman I've ever met…"

Not to mention, very horny. Dropping to her knees, she started to press kisses upon his member. It was a long and thick shaft; it can reach her limits and it seemed so tasty. Taking him full within her mouth, she found so much pleasure in bringing Falco to the limits of his abilities. Oh, and she loved the taste of his shaft. It was technically her first time giving head to him, but it actually was fun. He had orally pleased her many times before, it was time to return the favour.

Falco held himself back, and knotted his fingers tightly within Katt's hair. Oh she was good… "When did… Ugh… You learn this?" Being a preternatural amplified everything he felt, and even more so when it was his lifemate pleasuring him. "Have you been taking lessons?"

Between sucks and licks, she giggled and moaned. "Did I… Pass… Exams?" She continued.

Falco moaned again before responding: "Oh you have… You got top… Ngh… Grades…" He tried to hold back but she was stepping her game up. At this rate, he wouldn't be able to hold back. He was good at pleasing Katt, but she never had the chance to show him how good she was. There was a focus on the sensitive head of his member, since she knew this is the most important part that pleases men.

But Falco wasn't a normal man, so to speak. He was a preternatural, an Angel... He felt more pleasure than any normal Lylatian would, which made sense since the both of them never could stay up after a heated night.

Falco pulled out when he could, and held Katt close. Already panting for air and trying to regain control of his body, he just made simple eye contact... It was a good few moments of passionate staring. They neglected the fact that they were both getting showered with hot water, and they should make the most of it. "We should take a shower first. I don't wanna be found in the shower unconscious with a still running hot shower head. I'd be boiling like chicken in a pot of stew." He joked.

Katt smiled and released herself from his grip. "I love you..."

"I love you too..."

Katt really did love him. Hopefully by the end of this all, they would be together more often. If Krystal and Fox can promise each other that, then Katt and Falco can follow.

* * *

Gabriel and Fox were loading bullets into magazines, this time they were going all out and using magical magazines. It only requires one bullet to load, and as long as there is magical aura within the magazine or charged to the gun, one can keep shooting. These were known as 'aura mags', found usually within the preternatural black market and were expensive. A single rifle magazine can shoot up to 150 times from one single bullet being cloned continuously. It didn't affect the performance of the round unless it was charged.

Krystal loaded her handguns and spun them in hand. Her trusty handguns will play their part once again. He staff as well will be by her side. But there was something more to her staff, as she can feel potentially powerful energy that she could not feel as a Cerenian mortal. It might come in handy to any one of them, but for now it was another shrouded mystery.

Fox loaded his handguns and turned to Frost. They were close to Venom, and they're entering with a dramatic performance of explosions and gunfire. "Is there anything you'd like to say before we all go guns blazing?"

"Reap the tears of the victims cries, and put the Demons six feet under." Gabriel loaded his magnum revolver with magic aura .500 S&W rounds. He spun the chambers and holstered the gun.

Falco and Katt entered, with Katt putting on his coat for him. "Thank you baby." He seemed to smile as she pecked him on the cheek. Taking his katana and putting on a holster for his custom 10-gauge lever action shotgun. "I'm gonna need my Galeria." His trusty shotgun. He allowed Gabriel to borrow it for a while but he didn't give it back for a while. Now that it's back in his hands, it was time to play dirty.

Peppy entered. "Are you sure you four will be okay alone? Are you sure there isn't anything that we can do?" He was always worried for the others, especially when they were going deep into a Demon infested area. He knew about Demons and Angels for a while but never said much about it. Now that the Star Fox crew will be involved with such business, it was time to take even more precaution and make sure that everyone was prepared.

"Keep the skies clear." Frost said.

Lucy entered. "We're here."

The four fighters took al the gear they needed before all entering the main cargo exit from the back. "Who's ready for a halo jump?" Fox asked.

Krystal already pushed the button to open the door, and as the door opened, they all ran out of the ship and jumped out. All four of them speedily fell towards the surface. Eventually they hit the ground and landed on their feet. A perfect landing.

The ship kept flight to keep any of the enemy arwings busy. Some of the others such as Lucy, Slippy and Alue deployed themselves out in some of the outposts to soften the forces out.

As they landed, Falco and Fox threw aside their coats. Fox was left in his combats and sports vest. Producing tape and taping around his leg like a parkour practitioner. Falco did the same. Krystal and Frost did the same but instead around the sleeves of their arms.

When the sounds of growls and roars of intimidation started to close in, the four drew their firearms. Frost had his HK 417 ready to fire, Krystal had Ebony and Ivory Mk II crossed over each other, Fox had Luce and Ombra pointing at different directions whilst Falco held his Galeria single handed.

Many different low grade lesser Demons came charging at them. They didn't know who they were up against... At all.

The four opened fire at the charging crowds, tearing the Demons apart. It didn't matter if they had harder skin, tough armour that is difficult to penetrate, all combined in crowds still could not defeat them. Krystal and Fox fired their pistols at a fast rate, firing both handguns fast tore apart Demons limbs off. Frost was a little more disciplined with his gunfire, shooting enemies with well placed shots to kill them one by one or two by two with his high calibre marksman rifle. Falco's shotgun made work of two to three enemies with single shots, gibbing limbs and sending enemies flying back.

Krystal charged her handguns to fire an explosive shot, stumbling multiple enemies and sending some flying back.

They all holstered their firearms and charged with their trusty blades. Frost attacked first, severing arms of the Demons that held blades and cutting through their torsos was easy. His sharp hatchet was even able to cut some of the Demon's blades in half. He threw the combat axe at one of the Demons to strike it down, and switched to hand to hand combat. Still, Gabriel's kick were strong and unpredictable.

Fox's scimitar made short work of the lesser creatures, breaking through the lighter and thinner swords and slashing through them. Using its fire based element, he was able to create a wall of inferno around him and burn all that stood too close.

The vixen's staff had a powerful strike, as Krystal now amplified strength would allow her to swing and smash through Demon armour. Spinning the thin but amazing strong staff, she swung it again to the next unfortunate foe. A group of lesser puppet Demons tried to pounce the bounty hunter, as if she were prey to predators. Using the gauntlets she obtained from Macbeth, she charged it quickly before slamming her fist to the ground, surrounding herself with a powerful aura that sent nearby enemies flying and knocking down ground enemies.

Lombardi, with his trusty folded blade attacked with just his holstered katana. His Iaido technique meant that the scabbard played a part in his fighting style. Smacking Demons left and right, he then drew the blade to unleash a short ranged dimensional slash, tearing through the lesser creatures in one switch draw. Putting the katana back into its scabbard, he continued to fight.

Another large waves of lesser Demons approached. They had no time to waste. The pheasant stood in front of the other three. "They really don't know who they're messing with."

The other three signalled the attack, and Lombardi drew his blade which was overcharged with his energy. Multiple dimensional slashes were placed within the groups of Demons, cutting them in twos and threes.

To finish it off, Fox spun his scimmitar in the air before slamming it down to the ground. The result was an inferno that finished off the rest of the waves of Demons. Krystal shot down any stranglers whilst Frost finished off the last of the first wave.

Retrieving his combat axe, he swung it aside to throw the blood off of it.

"That was easier than I thought." Falco commented.

"We have Andross shaking in his shoes."

* * *

The ape threw every document on the table to the floor in a fit of rage. "What do you mean the Southern perimeter is comprimised!?"

One of the soldiers who reported of the dangers explained that there were two attack forces that were overpowering both the Demonic waves and Venomian troops. The mothership above was also causing problems for their aircraft. Morale for the Venomian Royalists was dropping, and their supplies were cripplied by air to ground attacks.

Even worse is that their anti-air and anti-ship weaponry was disabled as powerstations were targeted. Andross himself was an open target.

Even with the power directly from the Demon portal, he knew that it didn't make him immortal. But his anger overwhelmed him. "Fox McCloud! I will eat his heart and make him watch as I do so." With little option left and his forces ultimately crippled... He decided that it was time to unleash Hell on Venom. Though he was not able to entirely gather a strong army that could overpower the Lylat System, it was the last chance he had. He either wins here or lose here.

Drawing power from the Demon portal, he was able to fully unleash the horrors of Hell upon Venom...

* * *

The four witnessed the whole scenario of a well terraforming planet turn into a grim and bleak desolate land... And even more horrible Demonic creatures began to spawn, however they were aimless in an objective.

The waters became lava, trees became dead remnants of what they used to be, and the land seemed almost like ruins. The only building that actually looked untouched was Andross' skyscraper, which stood besides a few others which seemed worn out.

"Alue. Do you read?"

"Yeah. We read you. What was that?" Alue asked.

Frost responded: "Just get out of here... We have business to attend to..."

It wasn't long before figures from afar started to fly back towards the mothership. As they entered, the mothership left Venom's atmosphere. It was now just the four to finish off Andross.

Frost looked around, though not shaken by the desolated land, he was disgusted. Venom was a terraforming planet that supported life. Hundreds and thousands had moved her after the Anglar Blitz but Andross' loyal subjects had to ruin it all. They went as far as to ressurect the ape from the dead...

Though it was only Venom that he is able to engulf in a bleak environment, they had to finish off what they had started.

As the four began to walk towards the skyscraper, Krystal's staff glowed with a red light. "What...?" She didn't know what it meant, but the staff had a mind of its own as it pulled her to a direction. "What's going on?"

"It knows something important is around." Falco commented. "Let's follow where it takes us."

The team were led to a cave just nearby the skyscraper. After walking into the cave and going deep into it, they saw that a sword like weapon with a partially disfigured shape floated above a platform. The staff had stopped pulling Krystal but its glow was even brighter.

Both Falco and Gabriel realised what it was. "Tony Redgrave hid his father's weapon here?" Gabriel said in surprise.

Krystal was confused. "What do you mean?"

Falco knew the story very well as he learned it from some of the wiser Angels in his training years. "The story goes that Tony Redgrave's father, a Demon who rebelled against his own kind when he pitied the humans had a weapon that allowed him access to such power. He died but not without leaving his son his legacy. As he grew older, his half human heriage didn't stop his aging." He paused for a moment to look at the staff. "His son had given a weapon to the Cerenians, which was Demonically forged... But Angelically blessed."

Krystal looked at her staff. Her staff was actually a powerful Demonic and Angelic weapon at the same time! Maybe this was destined to happen... Maybe that's why Andross attacked her home planet.

"It was a beacon to his father's weapon. Without a heir to weild its power he feared that a Demon of evil would get their hands on it. So he hid the weapon in one of the planets of Lylat, and only a Demon or Angel, pure of heart and weilding the staff would pass the first two tests, before the final test..."

Krystal handed her staff to Fox. "I think you're the purest of heart out of all of us."

Fox hesitated for a moment, but the vixen's smile was just too convincing to ignore. He accepted the staff before looking to his other two colleagues. "Are you sure this is the right choice?"

Both Falco and Frost agreed. "Go on."

The first test was the test of blood. Stepping on to the platform and cutting the palm of his hand to allow drops of blood to hit the platform, a pathway to the next test platform formed. Walking the path and stepping on the next platform, the next test was the test of the staff. Holding it in the air, it gleamed brightly before creating another pathway to the final test.

The vulpine walked towards the final platform. As he was to reach for the blade, he heard the blade speak: "I am the blade of truth and justice. Pure of heart is only the weilders of me." The sword threw itself at McCloud and stabbed through heart.

"Fox!" Krystal was shocked to see his love impaled. Just as she was to rush to him, Frost and Falco held her back.

"Wait... Look..."

An aura surrounded him, and the vulpine's eyes opened wide. The energy was powerful, it motivated his strength... Able to stand and finally get himself through the blade, his chest healed immediately. At first he slouched for a moment, but then quickly turned to obtain the now tamed blade. Raising it to the air, it unleashed a flurry of energy that shot through the ceiling of the cave. The falling debris was then cut into pebbles as he speedily cut them into pieces.

"The power of Sparda is now within our hands... More importantly, his."

Looking up, he saw the skyscraper that he and the others were going to. "I think that Redgrave guy knew that this was going to happen."

The other three walked to him, and Krystal obtained her staff. She smiled and was glad that Fox wasn't harmed. Now they can really stop Andorss, once and for all.

Frost smirked. Even though Fox still wasn't at his peak level, his powers have matured and developed beyond average speed. "So. You wanna play the hero?" He asked.

"No... We play the heroes." He turned to the other three. "Once we finish this, our lives will change forever. There will be no going back, but I'm willing to risk it if you are."

The group all agreed to the mission. "Let's end this. Once and for all."

As much as Fox had such a powerful weapon to brandish at will, he knew that Frost still would be the better leader. "Lead the way."

Gabriel refused. "No. You're in charge. You lead the way." He said as he lit a cigarette.

"God... At first I wondered why you let me become a Demon... But now I know that it didn't matter whether I'm a Demon, Angel or whatever. But now it's come to this. You let me become a demon because you knew that even as one I'd know what's right from wrong… And now, we're going to purge this planet of its worst evil yet."

"Andross." Frost said. "You can steal a soul for a second chance, but you will never become a man." It took a deep drag of his cigarette. We yearn more to hear the suffer of the demon as we'll put him under. We've killed before, and it's time to kill them all… Passed down from righteous law."

Falco smiled. "We'll serve a justice that dwells in us. Andross, you're a lifeless corpse as far as the eye can see."

Krystal held tightly to her staff and looked to McCloud. "Our chosen torture had made us stronger, hadn't it Fox?" She asked.

McCloud agreed. They've been lost without each other, and what will bring them together forever is the justice they both deserve by defeating the one enemy they both share. It wasn't just for revenge, but it was also for righteousness.

"Well boys. Andross is 'Kursed' right?"

"It'll be a Frosty Kurse…"


	10. Chapter 10: Devils Never Cry

The resistance of both medium and high grade demons and Venomian elites were no match towards the four preternatural fighters. They were all slain in battle. Now that there was nothing to stop them, the four entered a still working elevator to the top floor.

The end of the battle was closing near. But there was a problem when it can to fighting Andross: The Hell Gate, a demon portal that can provide a demon with limitless power was still open. They had to distract Andross somehow, and shut the portal down.

Falco's katana had that power, so maybe if Fox could distract the ape whilst Falco took care of that business, they'd be able to overpower him. No doubt however that Andrew Oikonny would be of heavy resistance since he was embedded with similar powers. Frost would handle him, and make sure he dies as he should've in Fortuna.  
Krystal unloaded her handguns and replaced the drained aura magazines with new fresh ones. Chambering the round, she held tightly on her firearms. "We're almost there…"

Just as she said that, the elevator stopped prematurely. Something was wrong…

A demonic hand tore through the ceiling and tried to claw at anyone in the elevator but the four was quick enough to dodge it. Frost was first to draw his handgun and retaliate. His magnum was fairly powerful and it tore through the ceiling as effectively as the arm that clawed through it. The arm retracted but then tried to make the hole it left behind bigger.

Big mistake. The 'Rage' demon shouldn't have made itself an easy target. Frost shot it down and as it fell in to the elevator, Falco finished it off with his shotgun. "Stay dead." Seeing that his Galleria was empty, he started to load more shells into it.

A group of Hell pride demons tried to jump on to the elevator and overwhelm the four, but as they landed on the roof and around it, rapid gunfire shot them down as Fox and Krystal sprayed with their respectful weapons. More Hell pride demons attacked but as the four were fully loaded with firearms, they had no chance at all.  
As they died, they turned into sand. Frost wasn't too pleased with the fact and tried to dust off his coat of all the sand. "This is my bloody favourite coat!"

The elevator continued to move again. Dusting the sand off of himself, Fox holstered his handguns. Everything that has happened led to this…

The elevator stopped at the designated floor, which although was below the intended floor that Andross was in; they had to stop here and continue on foot. The vulpine sighed to himself to feel a little more calm. With the need to hear someone's voice, he asked: "Is there anything we should say before we go?"

Magilligan threw aside his cigarette and spun the chambers of his revolver. As it locked to one of the rounds, he smiled. "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you… Then hear the lamentation of their women."

That sounded fairly familiar from a film he watched some time ago. Falco couldn't put his finger on it but he disregarded this fact. Pushing the button that opens the elevator doors, he pointed his Galleria shotgun to the door along with the others pointing their firearms to the door as well. "The welcoming party is waiting for us. Let's appreciate their surprise."

As the doors opened, Hell prides, Stygian and other demons were in fact waiting for them. As they saw the four Preternaturals, they charged towards them with their rusty scythes and arm blades. None of them could even get close enough as the guns the four used kept a fair distance between them.

Clearing another crowd of weak demons, the crew exited the elevator. One more figure entered the empty floor, armed with only his sword; Andrew Oikonny wanted to even the score with Magilligan. The ape chuckled as he pointed his sword to the four. "You cannot stop us now. You're too late. Hell is now unleashed!" Throwing away any firearms and left only with his sword in hand, he challenged Gabriel to a duel.

"Hah. You've become fairly honourable, guts and honour. I like that." Throwing aside his handgun and coat and drawing his combat axe but turning it to a sword, he accepted the challenge. "It's a shame you serve Andross." He pointed his sword at Andrew.

Oikonny laughed. "I serve him because his power is beyond anything you have ever seen!"

Sternly, the hedgecat replied: "It's not his power. He's just borrowing. And he hasn't paid the rental fees." His black Angelic wings sprung out from his back, and a dark aura surrounded him. "Are you afraid of the dark?"

Though intimidated, he still tries to intimidate Gabriel as he unleashed the pinnacle of his power given to him. "You still talk big after seeing this!?"

Frost wasn't shaken… And only smirked. "Come on."

Oikonny was first to strike, trying to cut his opponent with a powerful strike. It was merely deflected by Gabriel's blade held by a single hand. Andrew had been taught to fight with disciplined swordsmanship, but never particularly practiced them.

In contrast, Frost actually was strong in his swordsmanship due to his continuous training with different melee weapons. His skill with a sword was strong and he could even fight with just the use of a single hand. Leaving gashes and cuts on Oikonny, he was merely toying with his opponent. "You call this power?" Blocking another attack, their blades were locked. The smooth steel was close to his face, but he liked that feeling of danger.  
Throwing him off, Gabriel charged and continued to harass Andrew.

Oikonny was becoming desperate as the pain of each gash, despite the relatively fast healing, was intensifying. At this rate, Frost would be able to wound him more seriously as he continues. Summoning as much power as he could, he launched an energy ball at Gabriel.

Frost barely dodged the attack as he rolled out the way but was partially disoriented. Oikonny chuckled and taunted him. Standing on his feet, Frost was again ready to fight. "Is that the best you can do?" He taunted back.  
Andrew summoned crystals to burst from the floor, and tried to encase the hedgecat. The mercenary kept moving about, and eventually led the crystals around. Forcing to dodge, he instead summoned energy swords and threw a barrage of them at the hedgecat. None of the swords struck or even scratched the hedgecat. "Stay still so I can kill you!"

Angered, the ape charged at Frost directly, and they both swung their swords at each other. The both of them had caught the other's blade with their hands and struggled to overpower the other. But Frost's strength was far superior and eventually Andrew strained himself. "You bastard... Scum like you ruin the worlds!"

Gabriel held on tightly to the blade that struck his palm. "Scum? I'm a bastirt, not a fockin' bastirt." Throwing off Oikonny, he jumped back. His hand healed as he looked at it. "People like me protect the Lylat system from monsters like you. A real, feral demon has no goal other than to be aggressive to anything it sees. A demon that thinks, demons that were once human but threw their humanity away are the scum."

"Demons and Angels are not human, and don't have any form of humanity within them!" He angrily shouted. "Fox is a demon!"

Frost silenced him: "Wrong! We have emotions, we have the ability to cry. If you cannot cry even as a Guardian Angel, then you are just an empty shell. A Demon or Angel that can cry and feel emotion towards others are as human can be." Standing tall with blade at hand, he pointed with his left hand. "And devils... Never cry..." And Fox had cried. He trusts Fox to be able to live much like other humans.

Andrew charged again. He tried to drive his weapon into the hedgecat, but he was deflected again. "It's not over!"  
Finishing the fight, Frost stabbed his own sword into Andrew. "Now it is... Andross' empire of hypocrites will fall." He allowed the ape to fall to the ground... Pulling his sword out from the body, he swung to his side to throw the blood off of the steel. The fight was not over yet, and it was Andross' turn to fall.

Andross stood in his room, awaiting his archnemesis... Footsteps sounded behind him but stopped moments after. He turned around to see that it was Fox, holding a disfigured sword, stood before him. He looked as young as he did back in Sauria, but a change in style. "It had been a long time since we've last seen each other, both ready to kill each other." Their last encounter in the lab was one-sided as Fox couldn't do anything and wasn't motivated enough to want to kill Andross. Now that he sees a powerful and angry Demon behind those eyes, he smirked. "Look how strong you've grown."

"Not a lot of thanks to you." The vulpine responded. "So here we are again. It's you and me Andross. And I have a score to settle."

"Still raw aboout me killing your father? And your mother?"

Fox understood why Andross killed his father, but still was pretty raw about it. The fact that Andross killed his mother made him even more raw. His mother was never involved in the Lylat wars, and yet he had the guts to kill her. "Why kill my mother?"

"Your mother? Hmph. To show authority... To show that anyone that fucks with a God like me, will die." He smirked, remembering that day he shot down McCloud's mother. "But you killed my army, so in a way, it eventually would become even."

The vulpine growled. "I don't like being even, especially with any of my enemies." He approached the slightly taller and bulkier Venomian. He had to get Andross' full attention, and he knew how. "I think you should know that it was a pleasure to see your army go down one by one..."

With a quick burst of energy, Andross angrily unleashed it and threw Fox a long distance away. It left the vulpine disoriented, and even more so, vulnerable... But this was the same for the Hell Gate when he noticed Andross rushing towards him.

Krystal and Falco saw their chance. Falco drew his sword and began to close the Hell Gate. The cobalt vixen provided him with extra Angelic aura to speed up the process.

Andross however had already crashed through the window of the skyscraper, with Fox in his grip. Falling through debris and eventually landing on a rooftop of a building, Andross threw Fox to the ground and then pulled him to his feet. The ape held the fox over the edge of the rooftop and then started to claw at McCloud's chest.

Fox felt nothing but excruciating pain. In this situation he couldn't hold back the ape from trying to pull his heart out. "Nooooo!"

The ape laughed manically. "I'm going to eat your beating heart! And I'll make you watch as I do so!"

Krystal looked out from the window to see that Fox was at the verge of death. "Falco! How long!?"

"Just get him! I got it!" Lombardi responded.

With no time to think, she threw her coat aside and jumped out the window. She saw that the Sparda sword was lodged into a floating rock. Obtaining it during her free-fall, she threw it to Fox. At the same time he was able to catch it despite his pain, she was able to strike Andross with a powerful blow behind his back.

This released Fox from his grip, and the vulpine kicked him back. His wounds healed instantanously with the presence of the sword. But the relief was to be shortlasted as Andross' unlimited power and direct link to the Hell Gate allowed him to easily overpower both of them. He held Krystal and Fox by their necks.

Fox used his Sparda to cut Andross' arms off. "Hands off!"

Angered but also in pain, Andross called fourth the full power of the Hell Gate. "Hell, lend me your power!" The power of the demon lord Mundus had fully transferred into Andross. Now turned into a giant statue like creature with wings, he was full of anger, rage and evil beyond all they have ever seen.

Just as the power of the demon lord transferred to Andross, the portal to the Demon world was closed by Falco. Frost and Falco quickly joined the other two.

The sword of Sparda reacted powerfully to the transformation of Andross. Falco and Krystal saw that Demonic forces were crawling up the building. "We'll handle it here. Fox, Krystal, finish it!"

Both foxes were a little overwhelmed with the responsibility. But they both had a bone to pick with the ape, so there was no turning back as they agreed.

Fox felt a power within him, stronger than anything he had ever felt... The sword... It granted him power to rival Andross. His form was changed when large Demonic wings sprung from his back, his fur becoming almost red as blood and bits of armour was formed around some of his limbs from the fur. With Krystal by his side, he didn't care if he was a Demon... Both of them flew into the air in pursuit of the Venomian dictator.

"The fabelled power of Sparda!?" Andross knew of the sword's origin through the many stories of a 'Legendary Dark Knight'. He did attack Cerenia to obtain the beacon but was unsuccessful in doing so.

Gabriel took note of the pillar that errected from the ground. It sent energy to Andross' heart, which stored the rest of the energy. The pillar would consistently power Andross until they're destroyed, which would leave Fox and Krystal to finish it. But it won't be easy as many feral demons roamed the land. "Fox, Krystal, you fight Andross head on. We'll disable the energy pillar!" Frost and Falco quickly jumped from the rooftop and started running towards the pillar.

It was Krystal, Fox and Andross left to each other. Andross chuckled as he showed off his new, and ultimately grusome form. "How do I look Fox? Big?" The ape laughed manically, feeling pure power surge through him.  
"It's like staring into a backed up toilet!" Fox retorted. "And I thought you looked ugly but you are something else."  
Andross smiled. It had been a while since they fought each other, and now they'll fight once again. This time, this will be the end of one or the other. "How strange fate is..."

"Strange and ironic that it'll end the same way as last time!" Krystal deemed.

Fox held Sparda and pointed it at Andross. "This will be for my mother and father. And for the life ahead of me, that you'll not be a part of."

The stone demon laughed. "Why, I can make you another set of parents, just as I made you what you are!"

"SILENCE!" The vulpine boomed with authority. Stepping over the edge of the rooftop, he dug deep into his heart to find absolute power. "How long are you gonna keep zappin'? You want to fight? We're waiting!" As he said so, Andross took off in flight. In fashion, Fox and Krystal pursued.

All three of them few as far as in to deep space, even passing the mothership that was still in orbit of Venom. However, even though Andross was not as big as the mothership, had he set his sights to attack it, the ship wouldn't be able to defeat him. But his attention was on Fox and Krystal. He channeled his power throughout his body.

Summoning powerful energy, he launched many different elemental projectiles such as fireballs and concentrated light at the two. Though he wasn't precise, the beams and projectiles forced the other two to keep moving around these attacks and dodge.

Fox wasn't finding it hard to fly, neither was Krystal. But their new abilities would have to be put to the test. McCloud himself was granted the ability to launch powerful Majin projectiles at Andross at rapid-speeds with his hands. "We have to hit the heart hard!" While his projectiles didn't do a large amount of damage, it kept the larger demon busy. Another advantage was the fact that Andross was not able to dodge as fast due to his large body and weight, and the continuous barrage of energy continued to chip away at Andross' stone shell.

Krystal flew ahead of Fox whilst he distracted Andross. The vixen still had Sparda, and if she was close enough she can break Andross' reserve energy in his chest.

"The last time we fought, it was ship against my giant head. But now, it is demon on demon!" He fired a large burst of energy at the vulpine. Though it was powerful, he still dodged the attack but barely. There was nothing that Andross wanted more than to wipe the McCloud bloodline out of existence.

The vulpine continued to throw projectiles. "And I'm still gonna win this fight!" He claimed. It was always good to have help from others. Even better, help from your lover.

A surge of power had built up within him. Instinct told him to unleash it, and he trusted them very much. Still believing his father's words to trust them, he tapped into the built up power. As he did, he unleashed a powerful beam of energy that struck Andross hard.

Stumbled, the large demon was vulnerable. Krystal took the chance to strike deep into the evil demon's heart with Sparda, and crashed through its chest. It didn't kill him, but weakened him severely.

Meanwhile on Venom; Falco was covering Gabriel as he attempted to destroy the pillar. They were close but the feral demons were starting to swarm. Borrowing Gabriel's revolver and his own lever-action shotgun, he kept the creatures at bay. "We're running out of time! Hurry it up!" He shot a demon that climbed the rooftop of the pillar. Looking over, he saw many climbing and clambering up towards them.

Frost was beating it senseless. It couldn't handle any more stress. "Don't worry! I got it!" He punched the pillar again, and cracked its surface.

The pheasant handed the guns to Gabriel and took his sword. "Switch places!" He took the hedgecat's place in attacking the pillar. His sword won't be better or inferior to Gabriel's fists, as the pillar was resistant to both of their attacks but not immune. The avian slashed at the demonic pillar continuously.

It wasn't long before it was finally broken as a powerful slash with the Angelic katana penetrated through.  
With that sorted, Andross fell from space and back down to Venom, but not without taking both Fox and Krystal with him. Random launches of energy caught both canines off guard and they were downed along with him as Fox.  
Fireballs rained down upon them, though not wounding them by a large factor. Both of them stood relatively still able to fight their opponent. Fox's demonic form however had faded away and he was not powerful enough to fight Andross, even with Krystal by his side.

Frost and Falco quickly caught up to the other two. Now the odds were even.

Andross landed in lava, but stood as if it didn't matter. His waist was submerged in the hot and thick liquid and its light gave reflective shade of red upon the insane dictator. "You!" He cried out, pointing at Fox. "I created you, I made you what you are now! How can you not follow what you are meant to be!?"

The four looked at each other, all with cocky smirks upon their lips. Fox stepped forwards first. "Devils never cry."  
The four all rushed the giant demon, using platforms floating around him and slashing multiple times at him. Andross couldn't keep up with neither of them and he was overpowered. Swinging and flailing his arms aimlessly, he tried desperately to sweep them off like bugs stuck on clothing. "No!"

Falco used his katana to slash at Andross' left arm, before he finally severed it. Krystal used her staff to smash at the right arm before it was useless. Frost and Fox attacked from both sides, whilst Fox repeatedly slashed at Andross' torso whilst Frost was able to use his hatchet to chip away at Andross' stone face.

Falco threw his katana to Frost so that he could deal a powerful blow. Together, Frost and Fox stabbed the weilded swords at the stone demon's torso. "Let's finish this lad!"

The hedgecat and vulpine with great strength hit the handle of their weapons to smash it through. The blades passed each other and screetched against one another before Fox caught the katana and Frost caught Sparda. Repeatedly they cut and chipped through at the demon's torso as it was helpless against them. Frost with dicipline, swung with technique, whilst Fox swung with improvised, dynamic attacks.

They both jumped away from Andross and reunited with the other two. Fox threw the katana back to Falco, whilst Frost threw Sparda back to Fox. "That was for Delta AWAL 29 you bastirt." All four of them drew firearms, and the four aimed at the critically weak Andross.

"It cannot end this way!" He cried out, but still helpless.

"Hey guys. What do you say when you win the Cornerian Lottery?" The four looked at each other with a smile, before closing in together. In sync, they said: "Jackpot." And fired...

The charged shots was able to slay Andross, and with the destruction of the powerful demon, energy blasted everywhere. "No!"

After the blinding light faded, the four were able to see again. The world had returned to relative normality. "It's over." Fox said in relief. He turned to Krystal and pulled her in to a hug. They both embraced each other, and now there was nothing to worry about, at least not for a long time coming. "I'm glad we were able to finish the job together."

She kissed him. "Glad I can help."

As the world had turned back to normal, his sword had changed shape to a normal broadsword. However, he knew that when the time comes, its true power can be unleashed. In its normal form, an amulet that can be split in half spawned from it. This, combined with the sword would allow him to tap in to its power.

Gabriel lit himself another cigarette. "Alright. Let's go."

Before they could leave, the ground shook. Startled, the four quickly looked around for anything dangerous. It was only when a black furred hand popped from the ground did they knew who it was. Pulling himself up and standing tall, the scar around his eye and the rose engraved on his coat... Panther Caruso.

Krystal thought that they dispatched him a while back. Even Falco couldn't believe it. "How... We subdued you!"  
"It didn't take long for Panther to get back up." He said.

The vulpine, upon seeing him, stepped forwards with a piercing glare. Krystal stopped him for a moment. "Fox... Be careful."

None of the others could interfere, it was a personal fight that Fox had to deal with himself. The hedgecat however chuckled. "Hey. You got anything to say."

The serious glare on Fox's face turned into a smirk. McCloud knew that if he can help defeat Andross, there was no way he could lose to Caruso. "Now... This is what I live for!" He shouted before drawing his guns. "I'm absolutely crazy about it!"

* * *

'There'd be a lot of you wondering... What happened next? Well. Not a lot of you asked me. For starters, Star Fox had come back together with all the old gang, besides Peppy who still had a job to do as the Cornerian Military's General.

With Preternatural creatures of all sorts now starting to appear in every different planet of the Lylat System, business for the newly appointed Demon hunting Star Fox crew was great. Speaking of which, Frost did pay me. He's a man of his word.

And he and the family joined the crew. Even though he was stronger than Fox, he wasn't the type to be the leader. Deep down in his heart, he still yearns the feeling of being a soldier. But even more so, he was content with his family. His wife brought him happiness every day and his child was just a beautiful gift that he finds precious.  
Falco and Katt got married. It was a small wedding, but nonetheless it was a celebrated one. It might be so that he and Katt would have kids eventually...

Well... As for Kursed... That's me... She's already expecting. The baby is no doubtedly a boy, so I'm going to call him Marcus. Fox did propose after everything in Venom happened, and we'll be marrying soon. There was nothing that could've been better out of all this... But whenever business calls...'

"It's a customer with the password. They're nearby. What should we do?"

'Fox, Gabriel and Falco would always be the first to smile whenever there was the oppurtunity'. "Do you need to ask!?" 'Life's perfect this way.


End file.
